Philippines Wants EU To Lift Ban On Smoked Tuna ff

The Philippine tuna industry’s fresh frozen sector is working closely with the national government to convince the European Union (EU) to adopt a more liberal screening process that will allow the unrestricted entry of local fresh-frozen and smoked tuna products to EU-member countries.

The large but still untapped EU market ranks third with a market share of 6% although US and Japan remain the biggest importers of fresh-frozen tuna products, posting market shares of 56% and 30%, respectively.

The Growth with Equity for Mindanao (GEM), in a statement, said fresh-frozen tuna exports to the EU showed substantial growth in 2003 and 2004 but have dramatically dropped this year due to the problems encountered by Filipino exporters.

An official of a tuna exporter company said the local fresh frozen sector, with the support of the national government, should pursue a cohesive strategy to effectively address the trade barriers instead of bemoaning restrictive EU trade policies.

”The local fresh frozen tuna sector, supported by the national government, can cooperate with EU member-countries in setting fixed standards of products, processes, sanitation, and plant structural requirement,” GEM quoted Ebenezer Bustamante, manager of Citramina Seafood Corporation, as saying. Citramina is one of the industry’s leading companies. He said producer countries that pursued this cooperative route for accessing the EU market are now reaping the fruits of their labor.

Bustamante said European buyers revealed that their respective governments are urging them to import more tuna products from countries such as Thailand and Vietnam, therefore, to remain competitive, the Philippines must follow the lead of these countries. ”Excellent trade relations between the Philippines and EU government must be maintained in working for the lifting of the ban against local smoked tuna,” he said.

Bustamante pointed out that local smoked tuna processors can also draw insights from the sectors positive experience with the US market, which is the worlds biggest importer of fresh frozen tuna products such as smoked tuna loins and steaks. He said the US has resolved the smoked tuna issue by focusing on the screening of tuna products for histamine levels and decomposition.

The US continues to import Philippine frozen smoked tuna as a safe product because it uses fixed quality standards and appropriate screening methods.

Bustamante stressed that the Philippine government should assist the country's fresh frozen tuna sector in convincing EU governments to adopt similar screening processes as he urged local fresh-frozen tuna processors to individually work on quality and cost improvements in order to remain competitive in the world market.

Twelve of the 15 tuna fresh-frozen processing plants in the country are located in General Santos City, which forms part of the South Cotabato, Koronadal, Sarangani and General Santos (SOCKSARGEN) area.

The General Santos tuna processors supply around 100 to 200 metric tons monthly of fresh sashimi-grade tuna to the US, Japan and EU markets.

The value of SOCKSARGEN’s processed tuna exports has grown at an average of 12 per cent for the last five years.