Processing tuna for export. Source: Internet.

Exports increase 57 times

According to statistics from Vietnam Customs, Saudi Arabia is the third-largest single tuna export market of Vietnam after the US and Canada.

According to Nguyen Ha, tuna market expert of VASEP, on September 8, 2020, the Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Vietnam sent a note to the Vietnamese authorities to notify the opinion of the General Department. The Saudi Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) allows 12 Vietnamese seafood businesses to re-export some seafood products to the Saudi Arabian market, including tuna processing and exporting companies.

The above regulation has opened a new market for Vietnam's tuna industry, especially in the context of seafood exports to many markets facing difficulties due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

After the above note, by July 2021, the first tuna shipments from Vietnam were exported to this market. After nine months, the value of Vietnam's tuna exports to this market has increased from US$85,000 in July 2021 to nearly US$5 million by March 2022, an increase of 57 times.

According to Ta Ha, Saudi Arabia is a landlocked country with no fishing industry. People in Saudi Arabia prefer fresh, frozen and canned seafood products. Therefore, this is a potential market for Vietnamese tuna businesses to increase exports.

Recently, the Vietnamese Embassy in Saudi Arabia and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development have submitted an application to provide export licenses to 25 Vietnamese seafood enterprises, including tuna. It is expected that, after being evaluated and accepted, the market share of Vietnamese seafood in Saudi Arabia will increase.

According to Tran Trong Kim, Head of the Vietnam Trade Office in Saudi Arabia, although this market still has a lot of potentials for Vietnamese seafood producers and exporters to exploit, a number of barriers are holding back businesses, including the high cost of transportation from Vietnam to Saudi Arabia.

In addition, businesses need to properly and fully meet food hygiene and safety standards and regulations on packaging labels when exporting goods to Saudi Arabia.

The Saudi Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) issues and regulates food safety and hygiene conditions according to European and American standards, checking compliance with very strict regulations.

Violating enterprises will be deprived of business licenses, fined, or even imprisoned, and all infringing goods will be destroyed.

Export reversal in many markets

According to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), after continuously growing in the first three months of 2022, Germany has replaced the Netherlands as the 5th largest single import market and the largest tuna import market of Vietnam in the EU. In the first months of the year, the value of Vietnam's tuna exports to Germany had an average growth rate of nearly 58% over the same period last year.

If in 2021, Germany is the second-largest tuna import market of Vietnam in the EU with a value of US$23.4 million, down 5% compared to 2020, in 2022, the export situation has changed. In the first three months of 2022, the value of tuna exports to this market increased by 59% over the same period in 2021, reaching nearly US$7 million.

Among tuna products, this year, Vietnam's exports of canned tuna products and frozen tuna meat and loin to this market increased sharply, by 59% and 136% respectively.

One of the reasons why German importers increased imports of these two product groups was because the preferential tariff quotas as agreed in the Free Trade Agreement between Vietnam and the EU which restarted in the first few months of 2022 is creating a driving force to promote Vietnam's tuna exports to this market. Besides, entering the year 2022, the inventory of canned tuna in the German market has decreased to a low level, increasing import demand.

Currently, the US continues to be the largest tuna export market of Vietnam. Currently, tuna catch in the EPO region is low, so the supply of tuna from the Americas like Ecuador to the US market decreases, so the US will have to increase imports from countries in the region like Thailand or Vietnam. Therefore, it is forecast that exports to the US market will continue to increase in the first half of this year.

Tariff incentives from the Free Trade Agreement between Vietnam and the EU (EVFTA) continue to attract Vietnamese tuna products to this market in the first months of 2022.