Tuna catching and exporting sustainably

Vietnam tuna is more consumed in the global markets. In the past 5 years, the number of tuna importers from Vietnam has risen from 83 to 96 ones along with the growth in their tuna import value, showing that Vietnam tuna demand from the world market is increasing.

The number of Vietnam tuna exporters rose from 70 ones in 2007 to 144 ones in 2010. However, until 2011, the number reduced to 114 ones because many of them switched to business other seafood items due to shortage of raw tuna supply. In 2012, the tuna sector continues to face common difficulties of fishery industry such as dwindling in tuna stock leading to serious scarcity of raw tuna for processing and exporting.

According to experts, in long-term, tuna is expected to hold the third position after shrimp and pangasius in export value of Vietnam. To achieve this target, itis necessary to protect and restore tuna resources, ensure both the production and quality of raw tuna caught domestically or imported from other countries for processing and exporting. To use effectively tuna output (both domestic and imported), there is a need of accurate statistics on Vietnam tuna stock.

Since 1995, Research Institute for Marine Fisheries (RIMF) has implemented some projects of Vietnam tuna fishery data collection, however, until now the latest data on Vietnam tuna stock hasn’t been announced yet.

Since 2010, Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) in conjunction with Department of Capture Fisheries and Resource Protection (DECAFIREP) has implemented the project of Western Pacific and East Asia Oceanic Fisheries Management (WPEAOFM) in which there is a project of Vietnam tuna fishery data collection with 4 targets:

Strengthening Vietnam’s capacity in assessing and monitoring tuna fisheries.

Raising people’s awareness of oceanic tuna resources and improving accuracy in tuna stock data collection.

Intensifying Vietnam’s capacity in ocean fisheries management both regional and international fisheries management.

Reexamining and amending legal document system, policy institutions and organization structure to control oceanic fisheries in compliance to requirements of regional and international fisheries organizations.

The data serving for the project of Vietnam tuna fishery data collection has been collected at three key provinces (Binh Dinh, Phu Yen, Khanh Hoa provinces). The data are on tuna landings, biological characteristics of tuna, tuna fishing diary system, on-board activities.

The method of data collection is based on time, tuna species, fishing equipments and information gathering from Statistics Office, RIMF, Fisheries Center, Sub-Department of Capture Fisheries and Resource Protection and Department of Agriculture and Rural Development in localities.

The conference “Vietnam tuna stock assessment” held in April 2nd to 6^th 2012 in Da Nang city showed that, there are 508 tuna fishing vessels in Binh Dinh province, 97 ones in Khanh Hoa, 522 ones in Phu Yen.

Tuna landings of three provinces are mainly yellowfin and bigeye tuna. In 2011, total tuna catching of the whole country reached 110.3 thousand MT in which nearly 23 thousand MT of tuna caught by longline vessels, 63 thousand MT by gillnet vessels and 24.3 thousand MT by purse seine vessels.

According to Vietnam Customs, in 2010, Vietnam exported 83.8 thousand MT tuna, worth by US$293.1 million with average export price of US$3.5 per kilogram and imported 52.2 thousand MT, worth by US$94.9 million with average import price of US$1.8 per kilogram. In 2011, Vietnam tuna import value was US$122.3 million, representing 29 percent growth from 2010. It indicated that tuna production cannot meet demand of domestic processing factories.

Therefore, the competent authorities should support tuna fisheries sector in collecting tuna stock data, pushing sustainable tuna catching, raising tuna output, improving post-harvest tuna quality and increasing tuna export value.