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

Vasep predicted a drop in turnoverbecause of a recent sharp decline of the world price of tuna, coming inbelow 1,000 USD per tonne. The global increase in tuna production, andthe depreciation of the euro and Japanese yen against the US dollar arelisted as causes.

Declining demand in major marketswas also listed as a factor of the price disturbance. However, unstablesources of raw tuna, was listed as the primary reason for falling tunaexports, Vasep said.

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

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

Experts hadalready predicted a rocky first half of this year for tuna since nosigns of recovery in tuna consumption-demand and tax pressures onVietnamese exporters remain high, especially in the major import marketsof Japan, the US and the EU.

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