The United Kingdom (UK), which includes the island of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (North East part of the island of Ireland), is an EU member state with the fifth nominal GDP (Gross Domestic Product) or the sixth largest economy in the world. The economy is made up of the economies of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The country has 58 million inhabitants.
London is the home for the largest financial service in the world with the London Stock Exchange, the London International Futures and Options Exchange, and the Lloyd’s of London insurance market all based in the City of London. The capital is also the major centre of international business and commerce and is the leader of the three “command centers†for the global economy along with New York City and Tokyo. In terms of tuna imports, London is the city with the highest concentration of consumption of imported tuna in Europe.
Tourism is important to the British market with 27 million tourists a year; it is the sixth major tourist destination in the world. This creates also a significant contribution in the tuna consumption.
Looking at tuna in 2007 the UK imported 126.915 M/T of tuna products which was the decrease by 3% from 131.202 M/T. Absolutely the major product variety was canned, must less significant in volume were frozen raw loins, fresh, frozen whole round and the last were frozen pre-cooked loins.
The average consumption of canned tuna is t the level of 2 kg per head yearly (the third in Europe after Spain and Italy); the UK does not have its own tuna canneries. All tuna has been imported from other nations to meet the demand of the country.
In 2007 the country imported 122.805 M/T or 12.829.257 cartons (48x185g) of the item, 4% less compared with the previous year. This is for the first time a disruption of the trend of everlasting growth of the UK market - often with percentages of about 10% year -on-year. The higher tuna prices - along with the weakening pound can be seen as a reason for this reversal of the trend. In UK supermarkets tuna is often sold in price promotions and therefore very price sensitive. 73% of the total amount of imported canned tuna is consumed in brine.
For the first time in history Mauritius has become the leading exporting nation and provided 23% of the canned volume. Mauritius has replaced previous leaders Seychelles and earlier Thailand, by realizing a 4% growth from 2.952.207 units. Seychelles’ supply of canned tuna to the UK fell by a dramatic 23% last year and landed at the level of 2.764.550 cases. The cannery in the Seychelles is owned by MW brands the same company which owns the UK premium brand John West. The drop in Seychelles output, might be related to a lower volume in John Wets tuna sales, or lower sales from Seychelles for retailers private label.
Mauritius is dominated by the Princes Food - which owns the Princes tuna brand - and also the largest cannery in Mauritius.
Also Thailand faced a major drop in shipments to the UK. Over 2007 the UK got 35% less from this Asian nation and the decrease was from 2.118.412 cartons to 1.371.408.
The UK bought more products from other important exporters like Ghana or Philippines. The import from Ghana increased by 5% and the Philippines recorded a very strong year by expanding its shipments by an impressive 28%. In this sense we can now see that Philippines is taken over part of the Asian volume lost by Thailand.
John West and Princes are the main tuna brands in the UK where 44% of the market belongs to private labels.
Frozen raw tuna loins imports amounted to 2.910 M/T. The volume more than doubled from 1.187 M/T, and Sri Lanka was the leading supplier of the item.
The UK got 909 M/T of fresh whole round tuna, 25% less. Yellowfin was the only species which went up, by 4%. The importing nation bought the main part of the Yellowfin item from Germany.
In the UK tuna assortment also appeared 176 M/T of frozen whole round and 115 M/T of frozen pre-cooked loins. The volume of frozen whole round tuna was stable with Yellowfin, just as in the fresh segmeat, being the dominating species as well. And the quantity of pre-cooked loins dropped by 78%, which indicates a fall in the domestic production of certain special value added products.