Italy is one of the biggest European tuna markets in terms of tuna consumption. 59 million Italians consume each year on average 2,11 kg of canned tuna, which is mostly solid packed yellowfin tuna in olive oil – in cans of 160 grams net weight. Over the last few years consumption in Italy has started to stabilize, with only a very slight growth. Although Italians eat tuna throughout the entire year, the market characterizes itself with a high seasonality, the summer being the absolute peak season. In general the quality level of canned tuna in Italian market is regarded as the highest in Europe, and possibly the world.
The Italian tuna canning industry has a high share of strong local brands like Rio Mare and Nostromo, but the private labels of supermarket chains are gaining share and now have about a 12% of the canned tuna volume. Italy also exports to countries Greece, Slovenia, France or Switzerland.
Over the last decade the Italian tuna industry has been very reactive in switching from the production of whole round tuna to making use at a massive scale of frozen pre-cooked yellowfin tuna loins. Also most recently the import growth of pre-cooked loins increased again by 3% over the period Jan. to Jul. 2007 with Ecuador remaining the main supplier. The competition from Spanish imports and the high local labor costs of cleaning yellowfin in Italy, has motivated domestic canneries to outsource the cleaning process to low cost labor countries close to the tuna catching grounds.
Italian imports of canned tuna are also recently showing a strong rise . During the first half in 2007 they jumped by 18% and were dominated by Spain which accounted for 53% of all canned tuna exported. The market is dominated by canned tuna in oil with cans of 160g and also 80g – mostly with easy open lids or peel-off lids. Yellowfin tuna in jars in olive oil is regarded as a special quality product. Although yellowfin is the most preferred species, also skipjack has been gaining in popularity, mostly due to its lower price.
Canned tuna products and pre-cooked loins are the main imported tuna item when other forms like frozen and fresh occur with much smaller volumes, being only a few percent of the entire Italian tuna import.
Since the Italian tuna fleet only targets bluefin tuna in the Mediterranean, this tuna is still produced by small artesian processing plants in the south of the country. Small volumes of bluefin are sold in dried form, or in jars and cans.