(vasep.com.vn) Vietnam has started fishing ocean tuna since 1994. The main species are yellowfin tuna, bigeye tuna, skipjack tuna with fish stocks up to 600,000 MT. Yellowfin and bigeye tuna have an average stock of more than 45,000 MT and an allowable fish catch of about 20,000 per year. Skipjack tuna has abundant stock with allowable catch of 200,000 per year.
In 2013, Vietnam totaled 3,500 off-shore fishing boats for ocean tuna (accounting for 14 percent of nationwide distant fishing boats) with over 35,000 fishermen. Apart from traditional longline fishing, line fishing with lights is also popular and provides huge supply of raw fish. In 2013, catches of yellowfin and bigeye tuna reached 16,000 MT. Exports valued at US$526 million. The U.S., the EU and Japan are the main markets for Vietnam ocean tuna products.
Tuna is the third export item of Vietnam after shrimp and pangasius. However, this fish industry is facing some problems: individual fishing activities among local fishermen, backward logistic services, limited bank credits for this sector, lack of close links among stakeholders in the production chain, especially the post harvest steps.
These weaknesses cause low quality of tuna products. Due to post harvest losses, there are only 5 – 6 percent of line-caught tuna and 30 – 40 percent of longline-caught tuna meeting quality requirements to be processed as sashimi products to export by airway.
Moreover, tuna producers just focus on fish yield and profits they earn rather than pay attention to markets' demand to provide more value-added products.
Improving quality
To keep stable developing of the sector, fish quality is required to improve. Fishermen need to create more fishing groups and efficient methods of purchasing, transportation and logistic services at sea in order to reduce time waste in the post harvest step.
According to a representative from the Japanese company Yanmar, raw fish quality is the fundamental factor to raise the price of product. Fish with good quality will have higher price and meet requirements of Japanese importers and others. Therefore, tuna producers should pay attention to immediate freezing step on board and at landing ports and better preservation storage using hygienic ice to ensure the fish quality.