The export of tuna, one of Vietnam’s key export aquatic products, islikely to continue rising in the coming months, said the VietnamAssociation of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP).

VASEP said the future increase is largely due to growing demands fortuna in the markets of the US, the European Union (EU), Israel andCanada.

Vietnam’s tuna exports have seen growth in both volumeand value as the average price of the product has risen slightly sincethe beginning of this year, reaching 5.26 USD per kg.

The USremained a large market for Vietnamese tuna exports, buying more than 50million USD worth of the product in the first quarter, a year-on-yearrise of 11 percent. It was followed by the EU, Canada and Israel, withexport turnover growth rates ranging between 15.6-54.5 percent.

Toimprove the product’s competitiveness, the Vietnam Fishing Associationis planning to establish a national organisation to oversee the offshoretuna fishing industry.

The organisation is expected to putforward suitable forms of cooperation between fishing vessel owners andexporters to ensure benefits of fishermen.

Earlier, the Phu Yenprovincial People’s Committee signed a framework cooperation agreementwith Japanese companies to boost the purchase, processing, preservationand export of tuna.

Under the terms of the agreement, theJapanese enterprises will send two frozen ships to semi-process andpreserve fresh tunas and transfer advanced fishing technology to localfishermen./.