Fishermen in the central province of Khanh Hoa transport tuna from their ship to the mainland. — VNA/VNS Photo Nguyen Ly

HA NOI (Biz Hub) — Viet Nam would continue to decrease tuna's export value in the second quarter of this year, partly due to its falling price on the world market, the Viet Nam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) forecast.

According to the association, the export value of tuna is expected to see a year-on-year reduction of 5 per cent to US$123 million in the second quarter.

The decline can be partly because of a drop in tuna price on the world market to under $1,000 per tonne, while the global output of tuna is expected to increase, the association said.

The other reasons for the decline include the weak Yen and Euro against the US dollar and a lower demand for tuna in Viet Nam's major export markets, Viet Nam Trade Promotion Agency reported.

In the first four months of this year, Japan, one of the top three tuna export markets of Viet Nam, dropped to the fourth place, after the US, the European Union, and the ASEAN market, because the export value of Vietnamese tuna to Japan dropped 38 per cent compared with the same period of last year.

However, the tuna exports from Viet Nam to the US recorded a year-on-year increase of 3 per cent to $58 million in the first four months, the association said.

The association expects that the tuna exports to the US will continue to increase in coming months to recover the national tuna export value for this whole year. The US market holds 40 per cent of Viet Nam's total tuna export volume, the Thoi bao Kinh te Viet Nam (Viet Nam Economic Times) newspaper reported.

The VASEP also believes that Russia will emerge as one of Viet Nam's potential tuna export markets in future, as the free trade agreement signed between Viet Nam and the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) on May 29 will create favourable conditions for Vietnamese fisheries exports to Russia, including tuna, to jump sharply.

Over the past few years, Russia has been one of the major export markets of Vietnamese fisheries, the association pointed out.

Tran Thanh Hai, deputy head of the Export Import Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, noted that three sectors - fisheries, garment and footwear - can gain many advantages from the free trade agreement with EEU as it has zero import tariffs.

According to the General Department of Customs, the export value of Vietnamese tuna to Russia had a year-on-year surge of 218.4 per cent to $1.65 million in the first four months of this year.

Meanwhile, the World Trade Centre's statistics show that Viet Nam was the third largest tuna exporter to Russia in the first quarter of this year, after Thailand and China. — VNS