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Final <strong>Report</strong>
RoO Derogation under the PACP-IEPA
6.7 Third Country Processors
Exporters of processed tuna to the EU are competing in a multi-billion euro market. French
investment in overseas processing concentrated in West Africa from the 1950s onwards until being
taken over by other players in the 1980s and 1990s. 294 Spanish investment focussed on Latin
America from the mid-1970s onwards. Table 6.10 details the canned tuna and tuna loin production
capacity of the major countries supplying the EU with these products. 295 As already noted, all of
these countries except for the four Southeast Asian countries plus China have duty free access to EU
markets (subject to regulations on RoO, SPS and IUU). On the one hand, for all of these countries,
tuna processing capacity is also deployed to supply non-EU markets. Market diversification is a
central strategy for some Asian producers. 296 For example, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines and
China are major suppliers of canned tuna to the US market, 297 and the EU market was only 13% in
volume of total Thailand exports in 2010. 298 On the other hand, all of the Africa IEPA countries and
PNG are highly dependent upon the EU market. The GSP+ countries sit somewhere between the
two, with significant sales to the US and in regional markets.
It is beyond the scope of this report to offer full accounts of all third country processors. The
following provides short accounts of some key elements of selected locations of production as they
relate to EU markets and/or investments by European firms.
• All processors based in Thailand specialise in non-branded processing except for Thai Union,
which owns major canned tuna brands in the EU (Table 6.9) and Chicken of the Sea in the
US. Nonetheless, Thai Union also continues to undertake non-branded processing for EU
clients. Thailand provides an almost full range of tuna products – from standard canned tuna
in vegetable oil or brine to a wide selection range of ‘value added’ items. In short, it is a
‘one-stop shop’ for buyers needs. The only market segment where Thailand remains a minor
player is canned yellowfin in olive oil in 80gm cans, the principal product on Italian and
Spanish markets. Importantly, Thailand relies very heavily on tuna raw material imported
from the WCPO (see Table 3.16).
• PNG, Philippines, Madagascar, Indonesia and Côte d’Ivoire all specialise in the non-branded
processing of basic canned tuna in vegetable oil and brine. PNG produces primarily for
private label and hard discount stores. As already noted, processors in the Philippines have
experienced increasingly severe raw material supply constraints since 2009.
• Ghana and Seychelles produce standard canned tuna, mainly for Thai Union-owned brands,
but also some private label. The Seychelles has only one cannery and is orientated primarily
to supply the EU market. Production in the Seychelles declined with the drop in tuna catch in
the Western Indian Ocean in 2007 onwards. Its export volumes to the EU declined by 31%
299
294 Senegal was the first major site of European investment in canned tuna processing capacity (by French
firms in the 1950s). Processing based there has been in relative decline since the 1970s when the EU DWF
shifted southeast in the Gulf of Guinea to establish its new main base in Abidjan, which processing investment
soon followed. With the opening of the purse seine fishery in the Western Indian Ocean in the 1980s, French
firms also invested in processing capacity in Madagascar and Seychelles . Campling 2012.
295 This includes the countries listed in Table’s 6.2 and 6.6 above on extra-EU27 tuna loin and canned tuna
imports respectively.
296 Ferdouse 2011.
297 Globefish 2010: 50.
298 Chalisarapong 2011. Thailand’s record volume of canned tuna exports to the EU occurred in 2006
(84,431mt), it has declined since then (see Table 6.6) but total canned tuna production in Thailand has
increased. This also indicates a strategy of market diversification.
299 For more detailed country-specific analysis of several of the locations of production detailed in Table 6.10
see Campling et al. 2007, Campling and Doherty 2007, Barnes and Campling 2008 and Hamilton et al. 2011.
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