Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam gained 13.3 million USD from exporting tuna toItaly in the first half of 2019, a year-on-year surge of 60 percent, accordingto the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP).
Particularly, the export value in June enjoyed strong growth, up 728.9 percentfrom the same time last year.
As exports revenue expanded unceasingly during March-June, Italy became thefirst largest importer of Vietnamese tuna in the European Union in the firsthalf. Last year, the country was the 4th biggest buyer of the Vietnamese tuna products.
Earlier, the VASEP expected tunaexports to top 1 billion USD this year, up 350 million USD from 2018.
Vietnam exported tuna products to 105 markets last year, with the US, the EU,Israel, ASEAN, Japan, Canada, China, and Mexico being the major ones. The UStopped the list with nearly 230 million USD worth of purchases.
Frozen tuna fillet was a key export item to theUS last year as shipments of processed tuna increased significantly while thoseof canned tuna products fell, VASEP said.
Vietnam was the fourth largest supplier of canned and processed tuna productsto the US behind Thailand, Ecuador and China, and the second largest supplierof frozen fillet after Indonesia.-VNA