Thailand's canned tuna exports this year are expected to rise 10% as rising global demand has helped revive the country's tuna industry, according to Kasikorn Research Centre (KRC).

KRC said Thailand's canned tuna exports to Japan this year will continue to increase as the quantity in the first seven months has reached $32.9 million, a 21% increase from the same period last year, while exports of other tuna products in the first seven months also rose 1.2% to $16.5 million.

Most fresh tuna is caught in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

Japanese usually consume record amounts of sashimi during the Golden Week in May, the Bon Festival in August and during the New Year festival.

Japan buys 90,000 tons of fresh and frozen tuna each year, which accounts for about 75% of the total tuna traded in the world market. The highest quantity imported into Japan is bluefin, followed by bigeye and yellowfin.

About 25.4% of Thailand's canned tuna is exported to the US and 11.1% goes to the EU, while Japan is the world's largest importer of fresh and frozen tuna for immediate consumption, mainly served as sashimi.

The price drop will be due mainly to the tuna-catching season in the Indian Ocean. The lower price will help boost export volumes. Also, the price of Thai canned tuna is lower than those of many other countries.

Exports will likely grow in the second half of the year as the price is forecast to drop to lower than $700 per ton, after reaching a peak of $950 per ton in June 2003.

Thailand still stands at the top position as the world's largest canned tuna exporter, and KRC expects exports this year to rise by 10% to $935 million.

As for the local market, KRC expects domestic consumption this year to increase by 10-15% to 700 million baht as Thais focus more on health issues and ease of cooking.

Thailand's canned tuna production in the world market may drop due to higher labor costs, especially in the US, Italy and France. These countries have turned to importing more canned tuna and that has helped increase Thailand's canned tuna exports.

The Thai government has a policy to develop a tuna fishing fleet to prevent a shortage of the raw material, and also to increase production capacity.

Thailand's leading tuna producer is Thai Union Frozen Food Plc.

Thailand is the world's largest canned tuna producer, followed by the US and Spain. However, the country still relies on frozen tuna imported from the US as the raw material for the industry, which makes the country the US's largest frozen tuna importer.

Canned tuna exports have begun to revive since 2002 when the world's demand for tuna started to increase and production of 290,000 tons was recorded in that year, after the tuna industry declined rapidly during the 1997 economic crisis. (Thai News Service).