Switzerland is an optimistic market for Vietnam tuna

According to the Centre for the Promotion of Imports from developing countries (CBI), fresh and frozen tuna imports into the market changed in each year. During 2006 to date, the market imported a record amount of 62,000 MT fresh tuna in 2007 with a sharp growth in fresh tuna imports from developing countries.

However, during 2008 – 2011, fresh tuna imports from global suppliers in general and suppliers in developing countries in particularly were on the wane of 77 percent to 95 percent.

Main suppliers of fresh tuna for Switzerland were Spain (43 percent), France (36 percent), Philippines (12 percent) and India (5 percent). Frozen tuna imports into Switzerland between 2006 and 2011 oscillated in line with sine graph. Frozen tuna imports from European countries, mainly France and Italy reported the sharpest growth with the volume of 11,000 MT. Among developing countries, Vietnam held the lead in exporting its frozen tuna to this market.

Processed tuna imports into the market from developing countries remained stable and reported a slight growth from 2006 (7,000 MT) to 2011 (7,700 MT). Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia were the biggest exporters of this item to Switzerland.

According to Vietnam Customs, tuna exports were on the upward trends of 233 percent from US$1.808 million in 2009 to US$6.034 million 2012. In the first two months of 2013, tuna exports tended to increase and till the end of Feb 2013, tuna exports to Switzerland reached US$708,818, increasing twofold against the same period of 2012.

Canned tuna was Vietnam’s main exported item to the market with threefold growth in volume from 2009 through 2012, pushing proportion of exported tuna to Switzerland to 1.06 percent from 0.8 percent. Despite being small importer of tuna, Switzerland is an optimistic market for Vietnam tuna exporters.

Vietnam tuna exports to Switzerland (Unit: US$)