More Fresh White Tuna Going To Italy ff

Fresh whole round Albacore tuna is increasingly finding its way to the Italian market. Italy imported 634 M/T of this white tuna in 2007. The volume represented a 15% raise from the previous year.

After an important peak in 2003, ending with 1.116 M/T of the product, the Mediterranean country’s import drastically dropped the following year. However, it has been showing signs of recovery since then.

Last year's raise was caused by the increase of the Spanish supply, which equaled 418 M/T - 72% more than in 2006. Over the years, the main supply to Italy of chilled white tuna came from inside the European Union (EU) trade area, representing 99% of frozen w/r Albacore origins in 2007. The balance belonged to providers from outside the EU like Oman, Senegal and Sri Lanka, which all delivered a very small volume of the species.

Italy accounted for 10% of the total EU Import of fresh w/r Albacore in 2007.