Excess inventories and COVID-19 lead to significant price drops for tuna

Tuna prices in the south central provinces have suffered a number of sharp falls recently with local businesses failing to export tuna products to foreign markets as a result the ongoing impact of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).

At present, tuna prices are fluctuating between VND80,000 and 90,000 per kilo, with some places even seeing prices plummet to as low as VND65,000 per kilo. This fall in price has forced many fishing vessel owners to take their business to other provinces in order to get a higher price for their products.

The sharp declines hitting tuna prices can attributed to the fact that enterprises are unable to export their products because of the effects of the COVID-19 which has led to companies having a large amount of inventory.

In Binh Dinh province, the quantity of tuna inventories has reached up to 600 tonnes, while businesses operating in Phu Yen are running of out space in their frozen warehouses after not being able to export goods for over a month. 

Whilst also enduring low prices and suffering heavy losses, fishermen have also been struggling to find new outlets to sell their tuna.

Two businesses that regularly purchase large amounts of tuna exports in Phu Yen said they will inform their intermediaries to stop buying tuna for the foreseeable future.

Elsewhere, other firms have unveiled that they intend to make a decision regarding whether or not they continue purchasing tuna from fishermen within the next three days.