Written by Natalia Freitas for Atuna.com

Atuna.com asked 3 top tuna players their opinion on “What will be the effect of the global economic crisis on the tuna business in the following months”?

The CEO of Tri Marine, the world’s largest tuna trader and supplier, Mr. Renato Curto, believes that the financial crisis will actually help tuna sales worldwide. He affirmed that even with the increase of commodities prices, tuna will still be consumed as a low price protein source.

Although MW Brands CEO, Mr. Adolfo Valsecchi, thinks it to be too soon to draw any realistic conclusions over the global crisis, he emphasizes that canned tuna is a cheap protein source and that, unlike luxury items, it will not be less consumed: “Maybe in 2-3 months we will have a clearer picture” he commented. MW Brands holds the activities of four important seafood brands: Petit Navire, John West, Parmentier and Mareblue. The company also owns the Indian Ocean Tuna cannery in the Seychelles.

Mr. Francisco Tiu-Laurel, CEO of Frabelle Co, a fishing company in the Philippines, is not so optimistic about sales. He believes that tuna prices will go down and one of the reasons will be the lower demand for the fish, and consequently lower sales prices. However, he doesn’t see the current economic crisis as a factor that will decrease the volume of tuna catches.

Concerning the economic situation of the tuna business Mr. Tiu-Laurel said: “I think next year will be a market correction period, given that most of the brand-owners and processing companies have lost a lot of money this year”.

Renato Curto stated that companies with high loans may have rough times in the future months: “Financially, the tuna companies that are not highly leveraged are going to do OK, the companies that have a lot of debts may suffer if the banks call the loans and/or substantially increase the interest rates. There is not going to be that much money available for expansion, new projects probably. As far as my company is concerned, we are doing great for now, but let’s see about tomorrow.  Life will be tougher for everybody”.  

Nevertheless, Mr. Curto sees in the crisis an opportunity for some tuna brands to boost their image and their presence in retail stores, considering that several private label importers and distributors may find it more difficult to move large volumes of product in the upcoming days: “Fishermen and traders will be very cautious in deciding to whom to sell and at what terms and conditions.  They may decide, perhaps, that it is safer to sell (even if cheaper?) to the well-known and established brand-owners than to someone they are not sure about.”

“Wal-Mart and Costco will sell more products than ever:  To the extent their sales are mainly of branded products, it will be increasingly difficult for private label operators to have access to product and to compete like they have done in the past. The credit crunch is a sad reality that we will all have to live through. Time to sit back and think”, Curto finalizes.