Many tuna export enterprises have high-tech processing factories

Back to the mark of USD 1 billion

10 years ago, Vietnam was only ranked 8th on the map ranking world tuna exporting countries, but by 2023 Vietnam has become the 5th largest tuna exporting country in terms of turnover, just behind Thailand. , Ecuador, Spain and China.

And the remarkable milestone is the record of USD 1 billion in tuna exports in 2022, showing the development potential of Vietnam's tuna processing and export industry. Vietnamese enterprises have tuna processing factories with high technology, experience, skills, and reputable products in hundreds of markets.

Ms. Cao Thi Kim Lan, General Director of Binh Dinh Seafood Joint Stock Company said that "With more than 30 years of experience in the tuna industry, I believe that the potential and space for the Vietnamese tuna industry is much greater if as we strive to overcome internal challenges and resolve difficulties with the attention and support of state management agencies.”

According to a report by the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), by the end of May 2024, tuna exports reached USD 388 million, an increase of 22%, estimated to reach USD 457 million in the first half of the year. Tuna exporters expect that perhaps by 2024, Vietnamese tuna will have a chance to return to the USD 1 billion mark if the inadequacies regarding raw materials are resolved.

According to statistics from the US Department of Agriculture, Vietnam is currently the second largest source of canned tuna for the US market, accounting for 16% of the country's total import volume after Thailand.

Although the US is increasing imports of canned tuna from Vietnam, the country's total imports in the first quarter of 2024 are decreasing slightly over the same period, reaching only nearly 33 thousand tons. The reason is that the US reduced imports from Thailand, the largest source of tuna for this market, accounting for 51% of the total import volume.

Highly depend on imported raw materials

According to VASEP, in the structure of tuna export value in recent years, more than 50% of the value is created from imported raw materials because domestic exploitation does not meet the demand for export processing and is unstable.

Regarding domestically exploited raw materials, many businesses in the tuna industry reported difficulty in obtaining raw material certification (S/C) although businesses have increased working with contacts and inspected thoroughly, but are extremely nervous after finishing purchasing the ingredients

There are many reasons why businesses cannot receive S/C after purchasing raw materials due to some problems in the previous stages that are difficult for businesses to know clearly, such as the issue of confirming food safety conditions for fishing vessels or the problem of fishing vessels operating in waters that do not comply with regulations although these fishing vessels are still allowed to go out to sea to exploit normally, are inspected and allowed to dock normally.

Or a situation that occurred in the last 2-3 months, quite a few fishing vessels installed monitoring systems via the telecommunications network continuously failed, causing the fishing vessels to lose connection to cruise monitoring for 6 hours or more. On arrival, some ships take up to 2-3 days - directly affecting the business's S/C paper making process.

From the above reality, businesses recommend that provinces and localities implement well and promptly the confirmation of food safety conditions for fishing vessels and fishing ports according to regulations as well as strictly implement the permitting of departure and arrival. Fishing vessel berths when the conditions prescribed by law are not met;

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is considering amending regulations so that S/C raw material certification can be issued immediately to businesses when they have completed loading and unloading raw materials from fishing vessels under the supervision of port staff in terms of type, volume... at fishing ports; provide guidance and direction on handling S/C papers for cases where fishing vessels lose connection due to confirmed service provider errors.

According to Ms. Cao Thi Kim Lan, looking back 10 years ago, Vietnam's tuna industry only had a few small businesses, all raw materials imported from other countries had to be "bought back" through many foreign intermediaries with high price and raw material costs.

To date, Vietnamese businesses have formed a "billion-dollar" tuna industry, ranking among the top in the world. Businesses have grown in both scale and technology and are brave enough to dominate the global market, especially the raw material supply market.

The decisive factor for the development of the industry. Businesses have moved towards "purchasing - directly buying raw materials from fishing vessels of countries on international waters", skipping intermediaries, shortening the supply chain, thereby significantly reducing costs of input material costs. This is a decisive factor in global competitiveness that not every country can do like Vietnam.

Every year, Vietnam welcomes an average of over 20 foreign fishing and freezing ships transporting hundreds of thousands of tons of raw tuna directly into Vietnam to sell to businesses. The raw material supply chain in Southeast Asia has shifted to Vietnam instead of only Thailand as before.

Vietnam is currently a preferred destination for global raw material suppliers because the company has large production capacity, superior technology and, above all, a flexible and open raw material import policy, preferential tariffs, facilitation of import procedures, which has created reputation with major suppliers.