The trend for high of prices of frozen skijpjack--raw materials of canned tuna and dried bonito--has come to a temporary halt.

The Philippine Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is seeking approval to export more goods from the country into the European Union and hopes to see the 24 percent import duty, which the Philippines’ tuna products are currently subjected to within the EU market, cancelled. The aim will be to have a zero tariff by 2014.

(vasep.com.vn) In first 6 months of 2013, exports of main seafood products from Vietnam to EU continued to drop due to slow recovery in demand. Exports of pangasius and shrimp decreased 14% and 1.5%, valued at US$191 million and US$138 million, respectively. Meanwhile, exports of tuna to the market keep a stable growth of 31% in value, reaching US$69 million.

Canned tuna has taken the top spot in Costa Rican households as the seafood with the highest consumption figure, averaging 2.5 kg per person per year.

A 53.67 percent hike in frozen tuna imports has increased the total volume of fish landings at the General Santos Fish Port Complex (GSFPC) for the first six months of this year.

Bangkok skipjack tuna prices currently stand at USD 1,930 per ton, compared to last week’s higher recorded price of USD 1,950.

After a dramatic decline in canned tuna imports last year, the first four months of 2013 have proved more promising for the U.S. tuna market as well as the countries that rely heavily on their exports to the world’s largest tuna importing nation.

(vasep.com.vn) Vietnam was the largest supplier of frozen bigeye tuna and the second largest supplier of frozen yellowfin tuna for Canada in 2012...For the year to date, tuna exports to Canada witnessed a stable growth registered for each month.

(vasep.com.vn) Japanese Maguchi Group has visited and worked with leaders of Binh Dinh province to find cooperation possibilities for processing and exporting frozen seafood to Japan.

Spanish canners association Anfaco-Cecopesca wants the Spanish government and the European commission to treat canned tuna as a ‘sensitive’ product under the EU-Thailand free trade agreement (FTA), which is currently in the early stages of negotiation, reported the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency newsletter.

(vasep.com.vn) According to statistics of US Department of Agriculture (USDA), between Jan and Jun 2013, the country imported nearly 134 thousand MT of tuna, worth US$806.6 million, up 6 percent in volume and 8 percent in value compared to the same period of 2012.

Between January and March 2013, Spain exported 30,236 tonnes of canned seafood, a figure that accounts for a decrease of 11.45 per cent over the same period last year (34,147 tonnes).

Greenpeace has launched a public

As part of the 85th Annual Meeting of the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) important agreements were adopted on conservation and tuna management and for the protection of ecosystems in the Eastern Pacific Ocean (EPO).

Due to the closure on fish aggregating devices (FADs), there are still no Philippine fishing vessels in a tuna-rich pocket of the Pacific Ocean, an Agriculture official said yesterday.