(vasep.com.vn) Many Vietnamese tuna exporters are currently facing difficulties due to lack of raw material for processing. Since the beginning of 2013, domestic landings of ocean tuna have decreased sharply.
Some fishing provinces like Binh Dinh and Phu Yen reported drop in tuna catches. In the first seven months, Binh Dinh caught 5,481 MT of fishes, 2.8 percent below that of the same period of 2012. Phu Yen’s production went down 31.4 percent to 4,115 MT. Through early July, the province numbered 117 out of 973 boats with capacity of over 90CV going fishing offshore. Many other boats have not managed the next fishing trip yet. The rising fuel price largely influenced on fishing activities, shared local companies.
Some ocean tuna exporters in Binh Dinh said that they did not have enough raw tuna to operate their processing plants fully, leading to lower export volume compared to the same time of last year.
Phu Yen-based export companies saw drop in their export value because the supply of raw material was unstable and failed to meet quality standards to export. Additionally, high inventories in the global market after strongly increasing imports in 2012 and weakened consumption of tuna products in some main markets like Japan, the U.S and the EU were other reasons for decline in Vietnam tuna exports.