Overview of global tuna market in 2012

Tuna landings picked up in the Western and Central Pacific and catch volumes in the Eastern Tropical Pacific have remained very positive, resulting in improved supply of raw material for global markets.

The U.S.: There seems to be some recovery in the U.S. fresh tuna market. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), in the period of Jan-Oct 2012, frozen/live/fresh tuna imports into the country were up 7.97 percent in volume and 50.62 percent in value compared with the same period of 2011. Tuna imports into the country were dominated by yellowfin tuna. Imports of other types of tuna such as bigeye and bluefin tuna also increased compared with the same period of 2011.

Sluggish demand for canned tuna occurred in the U.S. market. In the first 10 months of 2012, canned tuna import volume of the U.S. was down 11 percent over the same period of 2011.

However, import value was still up 15.68 percent due to its higher price. Three largest tuna suppliers of the U.S. were Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam with the proportion of 32.48 percent, 10.94 percent and 9.8 percent, respectively.

EU: The eurozone crisis and high price factors, unfavorable weather has affected the EU canned tuna markets. This is reflected in the declining imports of high value canned tuna from Spain into Italy, which declined by 11.6 percent during the first half of 2012 against the same period of 2011, while lower value tuna imports from Seychelles and Cote d’Ivoire increased 14.8 percent and 109 percent respectively.

France also imported more from Seychelles (+30.4 percent) and Cote d’Ivoire (+77 percent), while imports from Spain and Ecuador declined sharply by 46.7 percent and 21.6 percent respectively, resulting in the Seychelles emerging as the top supplier in the market.

Overall imports into France went down by more than 11 percent in quantity in the period from January to June 2012.

Canned tuna imports into German market posted negative growth (-11.7 percent) from January to June 2012 compared with the same period of 2011. While tuna imports into Germany from Philippines and Ecuador witnessed the reduction of 9.4 percent and 23.5 percent, respectively from the same period of 2011, imports from Papua New Guinea increased remarkably (+25.5 percent) because the exporter enjoyed preferential tariff under the agreement with EU.

After posting strong growth in 2011, tuna imports into the U.K dropped by 11.4 percent because of reduction of 59 percent in supply from Thailand. Weakening demand and high prices have also affected pre-cooked tuna loin imports into Spain and Italy, the two main canned tuna suppliers for EU. Spain’s imports were down 4.4 percent during the first semester of 2012.

Japan: In the third quarter of 2012, the sashimi market in Japan started to improve. Tuna import volume of the country fell by 64.4 percent in which yellowfin tuna imports recorded the sharpest decline of 29 percent in November 2012.

Frozen and fresh tuna imports into the country in Oct 2012 reached 15,415 MT, with a value of JPY 8,440 million. These figures were down 6 percent in volume and 11 percent in value compared with those of Oct 2011.

During the first half of 2012, canned tuna imports into Japan from ASEAN countries hit 24,000 MT, worth by JPY11.9 billion, up 13 percent in volume and 22.1 percent in value. Three suppliers (Thailand, Philippines and Indonesia) continued to dominate the market taking over 97 percent of the total supply.

Asia: High canned tuna prices coupled with sluggish demand in the major markets have badly affected overall canned tuna exports from Thailand.

For the first semester of 2012, exports of the country dropped significantly by almost 25 percent in quantity. The U.S. remains the largest counsumer though shipment to this market declined by over 30 percent. Emerging markets in Asia, North Africa and the Middle East continue to be the key areas to compensate for declining demand in the U.S. and EU markets.