South Korea: A bright spot in Vietnam's tuna exports

In the context that Vietnam's tuna exports to main markets declined in January 2023, exports to South Korea had an impressive growth of 457% over the same period in 2022. As a result, Korea China became one of eight main tuna import markets of Vietnam in the first month of this year. The Korean fishing fleet is one of the largest fishing fleets in the world and has continuously achieved high catches over the years. However, in recent years, due to the ban on the use of fish lure devices (FADs) and the depletion of tuna stocks in fishing grounds, the country's tuna catch has decreased. The decrease in catches has led to a decrease in the supply of raw materials for canned processed tuna production, and Korea has to increase imports of canned processed tuna and raw/fresh/frozen tuna from other countries. With the increase in imports of frozen tuna, raw materials for production, Korea has gradually reduced imports of processed canned tuna from outside. However, due to unstable ...