Panama, inhabited by almost 3 million people, is located in the southernmost area of Central America. Some categorize Panama as a transcontinental nation connecting the north and south part of America.

The country is considered an international business center and also a transit country. In Central America, Panama is the second most industrialized nation, after El Salvador, and the 3rd largest economy, after Guatemala and Costa Rica. It has by far the most developed economy and has the largest expenditure on resource consumption, making the country the largest consumer in Central America.

Panama’s economy it is mainly service-based, heavily weighted toward banking, commerce, tourism, trading and private industries.

Fishery is also an extremely important activity for the Panamanian economy. It is the second major export product, after banana. It is said that fishing in Panama faces new challenges within the concept of new markets and the proliferation of the ecological stamps.

Although Panama’s traditional fishing activities are mainly the fishing of herring and of anchovy, exclusively used for fishmeal and shrimp fisheries, during the latest years, Panama’s fishery pattern has diversified with the development of tuna fishing.

Panamanian tuna catches are destined to the European Union (EU) and also to the United States (US), being the EU, by far, the major importer.

In 2006, this Central American country exported 26.542 M/T of tuna to these two markets and according to the latest statistics, a similar level is maintained in 2007.

Exports to the EU

In 2006, 25.065 M/T of Panamanian tuna was imported by the EU, this represents 94% of the total quantity mentioned above. This full amount concerned frozen tuna, most of which was whole round Skipjack and Yellowfin.

The majority was sold to Spain. The United Kingdom (UK), Portugal, The Netherlands and Germany followed behind, however with quite a gap in between.



Although the Panamanian Skipjack’s share within the EU market during the first 6 months of 2007 decreased by 27%, falling back from 7.722 M/T from Jan through June 2006 to 5.634 M/T during this same period in 2007, the total frozen tuna import volume continued at the same level as in 2006.

Panama was the largest supplier to the EU of frozen whole round Skipjack. The Panamanian fleet caught the highest quantity of this species in the Eastern Pacific Ocean. Also, there was a substantial increase of boats flying the Panamanian flag; this was due to the reflagging of several Spanish owned vessels to Panama. As this moment, some of these vessels are being reflagged once again with the Ecuadorian flag due to economical reasons.

Export to the US

On the other hand, the US market received 2.517 M/T of tuna products during the first half of 2007, which means 72% more than in 2006. This staggering increase was caused by the larger volume of fresh Yellowfin imports, which went up from 703 M/T to 1.689 M/T, during this semester of 2006 and 2007 respectively.



Panama also supplied frozen, pouched and canned tuna, however the quantities involved represent just a small percentage of the total US imports of Panamanian tuna, as shown in the graphic here below.



The fishery sector in Panama is very important because of its source of employment to the coastal population.  It is estimated that a total of 1.500 industrial fishermen and 13.062 individual fishermen depend on fishing activities and that another 37.500 people depend on the processing activity.

The fishing consumption has increased in the last years and is at one of the largest levels in Central America.

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