By Atuna
During the last semester of 2009 the United Kingdom’s lower demand for canned tuna started to become evident and was recently confirmed by the European Union’s trade statistics released regarding the closed year.
U.K.’s total imports of canned tuna in 2009 were at 100.615 MT, 20% less than the previous year.
The drop in supply was a reality suffered by almost all the major exporting countries, with a remarkable dive for Ecuadorian canned tuna. The South American country suffered a heavy blow and lost 65% of its market share in the U.K., compared to 2008; from 18.583 MT to 5.252 MT.
It seems that U.K importers decided to rely on Thailand’s generally cheaper canned tuna, even though this country has a 24% import duty and Ecuador has 0%.
Although raw material prices reached remarkably lower levels by the end of 2009, imports from Thailand were steady all year long and the export nation made a remarkable strong comeback by increasing its volume 22%, reaching 15.797 MT at the end of the period.
Princes Foods which has its own cannery in Mauritius also suffered a sensitive set back by seeing its imports from the Indian Ocean drop by 22%. However, John West’s major supplier, the IOT cannery in Seychelles, managed to expand its volume by 4%. But IOT and John West are part of the company MW brands.
Meanwhile most large-scale suppliers suffered from the gloomy mood in the canned tuna trade to the U.K., smaller scale suppliers, represented on the graph as ‘others’, were cut out by 38% last year.
Although the numbers from the EU statistics office for 2010 are not ready yet, U.K. customs reported imports of canned tuna to be at 6.377 MT this January, nearly equivalent to the same period in 2008.
