During an extraordinary assembly of the National Association of Canned Fish Producers (Anfaco) held last month, the Spanish tuna sector decided to advise the EU Commission to maintain the import tariffs on Asian pre-cooked tuna loins, which is currently restricting the entrance of Asian product into the European market.
The Spanish Association signed an internal agreement that maintains the 24% import duty on the import of Asian tuna loins, with the exception of an annual 4,000 ton-contingent that will pay 6% duty.
This decision ended the confrontation between the larger tuna canneries and the smaller and middle size companies of the sector. Two weeks prior to the Anfaco extraordinary assembly, almost all the small and middle-size canneries had proposed to eliminate the 12% tariff on the import of pre-cooked tuna loins coming from Asia, and to push the EU to create a duty free access for Asian pre-cooked tuna loins, but this met a lot of opposition from the large Spanish canners Calvo, Jealsa and Garavilla. These larger canners have their own over-seas loining plants in S-America, with duty free access to Spain.