The figures represent a year-on-year increase of 20.4 percent in volume and 23 percent in value, accounting for 37.2 percent of Vietnam’s tuna export market share. They help maintain positive growth in both volume and value, according to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP).
Other markets purchasing Vietnamese tuna include Canada, Lebanon, Switzerland and Australia with growth from 13 percent to 40 percent in volume and from 2.7 percent to 26 percent in value compared to the previous year.
However, Vietnam’s tuna exports in 2009 hit only US$181 million, a year-on-year decrease of 4.1 percent, due to the reduction in export turnovers in such major markets as the European Union, Japan, and Taiwan.
The price of Vietnam’s tuna is expected to soar thanks to shrinking tuna supplies, especially if bluefin tuna is listed in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).