(seafood.vasep.com.vn) In the first two months of 2018, Vietnam’s tuna exports to Canada decreased while those to Chile sharply increased by 191% over the same period last year.
Through Feb 2018, the total value of tuna exports amounted to US$86.1 million, up 22.2% over the same period last year. In particular, the export value to most of major markets witnessed the good growth compared to 2017.
The U.S held as the largest tuna importer of Vietnam with the value of US$25.8 million, accounting for 29.9% and slightly increasing by 2.1% over the same period last year; followed by the EU with US$20.9 million, up 35.6% year on year. Frozen tuna loins/fillets and processed/canned tuna are the main export items of Vietnam to these two largest markets.
The value of tuna exports to Israel, ASEAN and Japan continued the upward trend in the first two months of this year with the rises of 10.3%; 31.1% and 29.9% respectively over the same period of 2017.
The potential market in the first two months of 2018 was the Chilean market. During this time, Vietnam’s tuna exports to Chile hit US$2.5 million, up 191% over the same period last year. Despite a small share of Vietnam’s total tuna sales, the value of tuna exports to this market began to grow steadily since the end of 2017.
According to ITC, Vietnam ranked the fifth largest tuna supplier to Chile (behind Ecuador, China, Thailand and Spain). In particular, Ecuador and Thailand have taken up nearly all the market share of tuna in Chile. However, since late 2017, this was shared by a number of suppliers, including Vietnam.
In the beginning of 2018, the average import price of tuna into Chile quoted at US$1.95 to US$2.2/kg. In particular, the prices from Vietnam and Thailand were being paid the highest level in this market.