Israel and Mexico - 2 Notable markets for Vietnam tuna in 2017

In 2017, Vietnam’s tuna exports reached US$592.8 million, up 16.3% over the previous year. The export value to most of large markets grew positively, except for Italy, Thailand and China.

The U.S and the EU continued to be the two biggest buyers of Vietnam’s tuna exporters with the value of US$225.7 million and US$141.9 million respectively, rising by 12.7% and 23.1% from 2016. Exports to the U.S - the leading importer of Vietnam accounted for over 38% of total exports.

Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam stayed as the three largest suppliers of tuna products to the U.S. Of that, imports of skipjack tuna and Atlantic tuna (HS code 160414) took the biggest share with an average of 13,000 to 20,000 MT per month. This item is also the advantage of many suppliers such as Thailand, China, Ecuador, Vietnam, Indonesia or Fiji.

The EU claimed as the second leading importer of Vietnam. In 2017, Vietnam’s tuna exports to this market also recorded the good growth of 23.1% compared to 2016, accounting for nearly 24% of total exports. Of that, exports to Italy decreased by 2%, those to Germany and the Netherlands remarkably increased by 24.4% and 46.8% respectively over the previous year.

In 2017, exports to Israel and Mexico experienced the impressive growth. In the year, Israel overtook ASEAN, Japan and China to become the third largest importing market of Vietnamese tuna exporters, only behind the U.S and the EU. The export value to this market touched US$44.2 million, up 70.2%; that to Mexico was equally impressive with the value of US$13.55 million, an increase of 61% over 2016.

It is forecasted that in the first quarter of 2018, the value of Vietnam’s tuna exports to some big markets such as the U.S, the EU and Israel will continue the rises of 15-30% over the same period last year. The export value to some Asian markets such as China and Thailand may slightly decrease compared to the same period of 2016.