India Kick-Starts Exports Of Fresh Tunaff

During the year 2006, India has started its first exports of fresh tuna by air. It airlifted 493 M/T of high value chilled tuna to Japan from April 2006 to March 2007 (the duration of the Indian fiscal year). In the previous period, Japan only got 7 M/T of this chilled tuna from India.

Until recently India had a very notorious reputation in regard to the export of fresh tuna, but with recent direct involvement of some Japanese trading companies this seems to have improved.  Generally Japanese fresh tuna imports suffered from poor catches in all oceans from January till June in 2007, which was visible in a decrease of total Japanese chilled tuna imports by 12.25%.  This drop in supplies from traditional sources closer to home have forced Japanese traders to start looking more at the Indian Ocean and the extensive coastline of India in particular.

The total Indian export of fresh tuna reached the level of 635 M/T in the fiscal year 2006-2007, starting from almost nothing in the previous year (9 M/T).  

Sri Lanka was the second destination for fresh Indian tuna - which got 115 M/T of fresh tuna, while virtually no tuna was exported to this country in previous years. Almost all fresh and frozen tuna from Sri Lanka is exported to the US and European market, partly due to the very good air connection from Colombo to major European cities. Southern India has no such good air connections. Fish to Sri Lanka is not delivered by air but simply exported by iced boats which can easily reach the near Sri Lankan ports.

Singapore was the third importing country that took 13 M/T of chilled tuna product from the Asian provider; the USA imported 12 M/T with Indian origin.

 

Tuna fishing activity through hand lining and long lining in India is on the increase, although the infra structure in terms of sufficient chilled land and air transport facilities is still rather limited. This has an effect on the final product quality and the risks involved for all players in the fresh tuna supply chain.