Not Enough Tuna To Meet Spanish Demand For Cooked Loins ff

Europe’s largest tuna canning industry, located in Spain, imported 38.303 M/T of frozen pre-cooked loins in 2007, which is only a slight 2% more than during the previous year.  Although demand by Spanish canners for pre-cooked loins has been rising, the limited availability of raw material all over the world seems to have put a stop to the strong growth in imports over the last 7 years.

 

The volume imported from inside the European Union (EU) corresponded to only 5% of the purchase in the past two years. Most of the product came from outside, from La Union in El Salvador, being Spain’s main supplier with 14.753 M/T last year, thus a 35% rise.

Ecuador was the second largest supplying nation with 13.156 M/T saw its share decline drastically by 18% compared to 2006.

However, last year’s surprise came from Thailand. In 2006 Spain did not get any frozen pre-cooked tuna loins from Thailand, but in 2007, that number jumped to 2.860 M/T.

The Thai volume is almost equal to the Spanish import from Guatemala the year before. The Latin American country saw it exports collaps, and had no longer any share in Spanish loin imports in 2007.

 

Even though Spain imports of frozen pre-cooked loins didn’t increase a lot in the past two years, the 2007 volume still represents the highest import of pre-cooked loins ever.  Expectations are that over 2008 the EU-need for cooked loins will increase further, the question remains whether there will be sufficient supply to meet this growing demand.