Vietnam tuna exports penetrate into Canadian market

As a country surrounded by the Arctic, Atlantic and Pacific, the Canadian fishing industry is very developed. Canada exports over 75% of seafood products to 80 countries around the world. Although being a net seafood exporter, yet Canadian fisheries still cannot meet the domestic demand, the country still has to increase the import of seafood from other countries, especially tuna.

Specifically, each year the Canadian fisheries harvested more than 3,800 tons of Pacific albacore tuna, but not enough to meet domestic demand. Therefore, the country still has to import tuna from other countries in the world. By the end of 2018, Canada is currently the 12th largest importer of tuna in the world and the sixth largest tuna importer of Vietnam.

Tuna is one of the staple foods in many Canadian families, especially canned tuna. In the past 10 years, Canada imported a lot of processed and canned tuna. The proportion of imports of processed and canned tuna into this country accounts for over 80% of the total volume of imports of tuna products in the past 10 years.

To meet the demand of domestic consumption and tuna production, Canada is importing tuna from over 39 countries in the world, in which ASEAN countries account for more than 79% of the total volume of imports of this country.

Vietnam currently accounts for 10% market share in the Canadian tuna market, while Thailand accounts for 62% and the Philippines accounts for 6%. Notably, Canada has tended to reduce tuna imports from Thailand recently while increasing imports from other suppliers, including Vietnam.

In addition, as a member country participating in the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership Comprehensive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) Agreement, Canada is increasingly interested in tuna supply from Vietnam.

Specifically, tuna export value of Vietnam has tended to grow continuously from June 2018 until now. In the first 5 months of this year, total tuna export value of Vietnam to Canada reached US$9.8 million, an increase of 93% compared to the same period in 2018. Especially, compared to the same period in 2018, export of processed tuna Vietnam to Canada increased 245%.

Under the commitments in the CPTPP, Canada will abolish the 7% tariff on canned tuna products to 0% as soon as the agreement comes into effect. Therefore, the approval of Vietnam and Canada for CPTPP will be a good opportunity for Vietnamese enterprises to boost export of canned processed tuna to this market.