According to information from the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), after 3 consecutive months of decline, Vietnam's tuna exports to the UK have increased again. In June 2024 alone, tuna exports to this market increased by 56%, reaching 742 million USD.

However, VASEP said that the high growth rate in the past 2 months was still not enough to offset the previous decline. Therefore, in the first 6 months of 2024, the cumulative export turnover to this market reached 3.6 million USD, down 5% over the same period. Frozen tuna meat/loins are still Vietnam's main export products to this market, accounting for 92%. Vietnam is currently the second largest supplier of frozen tuna meat/loins outside the EU to the UK market, after South Korea.

Frozen tuna meat/loins are still Vietnam's main export products to the UK market. Photo: Investment Newspaper

In the UK market, tuna is sold in many forms such as raw, processed, sushi, sauced, cakes or breaded... Of these, canned and pouched tuna products are the most consumed. However, the consumption of this product group has been on a downward trend since last year.

On the contrary, consumption of tuna products in the form of sushi or breaded tuna tends to increase. Therefore, this is an opportunity for countries to increase their exports of processed and canned tuna products. However, in the canned and pouched tuna market segment, Ecuador, Mauritius, Seychelles and the Philippines are the four main suppliers to the UK market. Meanwhile, Vietnam is only a very small supplier.

Source: Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP)

According to VASEP, like Vietnam, Ecuador has signed a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the UK. This is creating favorable conditions for this country to increase exports to the UK. With a powerful fleet and an abundant supply of tuna of pure origin for Ecuador, Ecuador has many opportunities to boost exports to this market.

Meanwhile, our country's catch is inherently much lower than that of our neighbor due to the lower fishing capacity of the fleet. In addition, regulations limiting the size of skipjack tuna allowed to be exploited are making the output even lower. Therefore, VASEP expects that tuna exports to the UK will find it difficult to maintain growth momentum until the end of the year.