HCM City (VNA) - Tuna exports are expected toincrease by 8 percent this year to 524 million USD, according to the VietnamAssociation of Seafood Producers and Exporters (VASEP).

VASEP General Secretary Truong Dinh Hoe said that afterfalling for three years, tuna exports went up by 9 percent last year to 500million USD, with frozen tuna loin and canned tuna accounting for 47 percentand 30 percent.

The US, EU, ASEAN, Israel, China, and Japan were the largestbuyers, he said.

Shipments to the US were worth 200 million USD, ayear-on-year increase of 4.5 percent, making Vietnam the second biggestexporter to that market.

Faced with similar import tariffs as the other main tunaexporting countries, if Vietnamese firms maintain quality and supply, Vietnamwould remain the second largest exporter to the US or even surpass Indonesia tobecome the largest in a few years, Hoe said.

Exports to the EU, the second biggest buyer, reached 110million USD last year, an increase of 11.5 percent over 2015.

Frozen tuna loin was the main item (accounting for 36 percent)followed by canned tuna (31 percent), frozen whole tuna (20 percent) andothers.

Italy, German and Belgium were the three main markets in theEU, accounting for 57 percent of the imports.

Italy is among the largest tuna consumption markets in theworld, and Vietnamese firms exported mainly frozen yellow-fin tuna to thatmarket and had a 28 percent market share, Hoe said.

Export of the fish is expected to increase further,especially after the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement comes into force andVietnamese tuna attracts lower tariffs than that of its rivals, he said.

Exports to China increased by 69.2 percent last year, butexports to Japan went down by 6.9 percent.

Japan’s tuna imports are falling every year since youngpeople there increasingly prefer meat, reducing consumption of tuna sashimi andsushi, Hoe said.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of theUnited Nations, consumption of fresh and frozen tuna in Japan reduced by 3 percentlast year.

In the long term, its seafood imports will continue to fall.

The depreciation of the yen also affected tuna exports toJapan, Vasep said.

Vietnam has a very small share (0.5 percent) of the Japanesefresh/frozen tuna market, it said.

Hoe said this year Vietnamese tuna exporters would increaseexports of frozen tuna loin to take full advantage of domestic supply of thefish as well as imports.-VNA