Although China has a fairly new and young tuna industry, its population of more than 1.3 billion consumers has still not gotten the taste of tuna. This means that its domestic tuna industry, which now consists of close to ten canneries, is almost entirely geared at export to Europe and also the USA.  As long as there is no change in the consumption pattern of the Chinese, these industries will have to export their tuna in wait of the day that Chinese consumers will start eating tuna.  It is said that once Chinese learn how to eat tuna, the entire current supply to Europe and the USA will not be enough to meet the demand of this huge market. Until that day, domestic canneries mostly produce for export and import their tuna from many different countries- due to the lacking of a domestic Chinese tuna fleet.

If we focus on the export of China to the USA we find that  7.176 M/T of tuna products were exported from January to August 2007, an increase by 68% from 4.272 M/T over the same period last year.

The delivered quantity of tuna products gave China a 3.5 % share of the total U.S. import market which was an improvement from 0.32% in 2004. This indicates that the growth of Chinese exports within the US market has been much slower than expected, and that the country still does not play a relevant role in the market.

Canned tuna in brine was the main product provided by this Asian exporter to the USA in terms of both quantity and value. This has been the case already for the last three years. Last year, China peaked in its canned tuna exports with 5.526 M/T (or 677.206 cartons – 48x170g) of canned tuna – both in oil and in brine. If we look at the fact that already 4872 M/T of canned tuna was imported from China in the first 8 months of 2007, we can surely conclude that China will once again show growth in this segment this year.

Pre-cooked tuna loins were the second most important tuna product being exported to the USA. Production of pre-cooked loins for the USA only just started this year, and has grown explosively in such a short period. By the end of 2007 we could see pre-cooked tuna loins imports accelerate from zero to possibly 2.000 M/T in just one year time.

The average FOB value of Chinese tuna products has reached the level of US $ 2.589 per M/T – which is 31% higher this year, if we compare to 2006.  Due to this increase, the price gap difference between the average export Chinese price for tuna and the average price of all U.S. tuna imports combined has been shrinking. This indicates that China is starting to add more value to its product.

Based on the numbers over the period from Jan. to Aug. 2007, we can conclude that China is on the way of playing a more prominent role in the USA market, however much will depend on the ability of the Chinese industry to secure raw material to fuel its processing industry.

Recent reports about a potential build up of a Chinese tuna fleet could improve the Chinese processors position.

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