Vietnam exported 19,000 tonnes of tuna to the United States in 2009, earning 67.3 million USD, reported the General Department of Customs.
The figures represent year-on-year increase with the US of 20.4 percent in volume and 23 percent in value, accounting for 37.2 percent of Vietnam ’s tuna export share market, maintaining positive growth rate 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 satisfactory 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 recorded a year-on-year decrease of 4.1 percent, reaching only 181 million USD because of the reduction in export turnovers in major markets as European Union , Japan and Taiwan .
The price of Vietnam’s tuna is expected to drastically rise due to shrinking tuna supplies, especially if bluefin tuna is listed in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES)./.