The Vietnam Association of Seafood Producers and Exporters (Vasep) forecast that the export value of tuna will decrease by 5 percent this year, bringing in an estimated 123 million USD for the second quarter of the year.

Vasep predicted a drop in turnover because of a recent sharp decline of the world price of tuna, coming in below 1,000 USD per tonne. The global increase in tuna production, and the depreciation of the euro and Japanese yen against the US dollar are listed as causes.

Declining demand in major markets was also listed as a factor of the price disturbance. However, unstable sources of raw tuna, was listed as the primary reason for falling tuna exports, Vasep said.

According to Vasep, tuna exports got off to a rocky start over the past three months dipping by 9 percent to 104.3 million USD.

Exports to the US, the leading importer of Vietnamese tuna, declined by 1.2 percent to 38 million USD for the quarter. Exports to the EU –the second largest market – slipped more by 15.5 percent to total 28.23 million USD. Shipments to Japan - the third largest market – saw the most dramatic yearly decline of 43.2 percent to only 4 million USD.

Experts had already predicted a rocky first half of this year for tuna since no signs of recovery in tuna consumption-demand and tax pressures on Vietnamese exporters remain high, especially in the major import markets of Japan, the US and the EU.

According to Vasep, management and data collection on tuna exploitation remained weak and must be enhanced to meet the requirements of demanding importers.-VNA