Tuna is the export item worth hundreds of millions of USD of Vietnam and is highly favored in major markets such as the US, Japan, and Canada. In recent years, tuna has been considered an important item, accounting for a large proportion of the total seafood export turnover. Currently, Vietnamese tuna products have been exported to over 100 markets worldwide. Among them, the US, EU, Middle East, and CPTPP are the four major markets consuming a lot of Vietnamese tuna, accounting for 82-86% of the total export turnover of this item in our country.

According to VASEP, 2024 is expected to be a year with many challenges for the tuna export industry, as the European Commission still maintains a yellow card warning for Vietnam's exploited seafood products. Moreover, although the price of raw tuna on the market has decreased, tensions in the Red Sea are expected to increase transportation costs. This poses challenges to the cost of finished tuna products.

In addition, inflation and slow economic recovery, along with large inventories of export enterprises, are also major challenges facing Vietnam's tuna export industry. Especially, besides the difficulties in export markets, Vietnamese enterprises also face many challenges due to shortcomings in the current food safety control regulations (ATTP) of our country.

Faced with these difficulties, VASEP suggests that management agencies need to resolve these obstacles for enterprises, in order to create favorable conditions for Vietnam's tuna export enterprises.