Not only facing difficulties due to high tax rates when exporting to the EU market, Vietnamese tuna also faces a shortage of raw materials for production and export.
Information from the Association of Processing and Seafood export Vietnam showed that in September 2024, Vietnam's tuna exports continued to maintain growth momentum. However, the growth rate remained low, up 12% over the same period.
Cumulatively in the first 9 months of 2024, Vietnam's tuna exports reached more than 728 million USD, an increase of 18% over the same period in 2023. Tuna exports to major markets still maintained growth momentum, but the growth rate is tending to slow down in the last months of the year.
According to statistics from Vietnam Customs, canned tuna is the second largest export product in total tuna exports, accounting for over 30% of total export turnover. Of which, the US, Israel and the EU are the three largest import markets for canned tuna from Vietnam.
According to the agreements in the free trade agreement Between Vietnam and other countries, Vietnamese tuna products exported to partner countries that want to enjoy tariff preferences must have pure origin, meaning the raw materials must be caught by ships of FTA member countries and produced in Vietnam.
Canned tuna products or frozen steamed tuna loins with HS16 code when exported to the EU will be subject to a 24% tax, a very high tax rate. Therefore, with this tax rate, Vietnamese products will find it difficult to compete with countries that are enjoying preferential tariffs such as the Philippines or Ecuador, or cheap Chinese tuna loins (tax-free under the autonomous tariff quota (ATQ))...
Not only that, Decree No. 37/2024 of the Government (effective from September 15) amends and supplements a number of articles of Decree No. 26/2019 detailing a number of articles and measures to implement the Law on Fisheries, stipulating that the minimum size of tuna that can be exploited is 500mm (50cm).
According to this regulation, if an export processing enterprise buys skipjack tuna smaller than the size of the fish caught, it will not be granted a certificate of raw seafood caught for export. Therefore, enterprises are no longer buying small skipjack tuna as before, so the consumption of skipjack tuna is slow, leading to a decrease in fish prices.
In many localities, the price of skipjack tuna has dropped to 19,000 - 20,000 VND/kg. At this price, although many fishing boats achieve a good yield each trip, due to costs of up to 200 - 300 million VND, the decrease in fish prices has caused the profits earned by boat owners to almost disappear.
Meanwhile, the cost of each trip and the increase in labor costs have caused many difficulties for ship owners. Due to unprofitable fishing, many fishermen had to leave their trawlers on shore after the last trip. The inability to go offshore is causing fishermen to lose income and significantly affecting their family lives.
Currently, world sea freight rates have decreased on all routes, most strongly on the Asia-US West Coast and Europe routes. This is considered a positive signal for export enterprises to welcome growth opportunities at the end of the year.
However, difficulties in domestic raw material sources and the impact of the Israel-Iran conflict are expected to restrain tuna export growth in the last quarter of the year. In addition, if the raw material problem persists, Vietnam's tuna processing and export industry will face a shortage of raw materials for production and export.
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