In the first half of the year, exports of frozen tuna loins/fillets remained the large share of 40% in total export value to this market; followed by canned tuna with 32%. Notably, Vietnam currently boosted shipments of fresh/live/frozen tuna to the market, while reducing those of processed tuna from a year before.

According to statistics from the International Trade Centre (ITC), tuna imports into the EU in the first half of this year were also on the upward trend over the same period. In which, the import value of tuna into 28 countries in the bloc hit nearly US$2.4 billion, up 21% over the same period in 2016.

Spain, Italy and France were top 3 leading buyers of tuna in the EU. Compared to the same period last year, tuna imports into most of countries in the EU increased. Specifically, imports into Spain inched up 44%; those into Italy were up 15% and those into France increased by 18% year on year.

The EU imported tuna from more than 80 countries around the world. Of that, Ecuador, Seychelles, Mauritius, the Philippines and Thailand stayed as top 5 largest suppliers to the EU. Vietnam currently held as the 9^th largest exporter to this market.