Tropical Tuna Landing at Fishing Ports in Thailand during 2016 – 2018

Thailand is one of the world’s largest exporters of tuna products which are of great important in term of economic value and intensive international trade. During 2016 - 2018, total amount of tuna products exported from Thailand across the world ranged from 563,683 – 633,780 tons per year with an average export of 599,376 tons per year. While, export value of tuna products ranged from 2.50 – 2.66 billion USD per year with an average of 2.60 billion USD per year. The products include canned, pouch, and loin tuna as well as pet food.
Since 2016, no Thai-flagged vessel had been operated outside Thai waters because all oversea fishing vessels were recalled to dock in Thailand in order to inspect whether they comply with the regulations under the Royal Ordinance on Fisheries B.E. 2558 (2015). Consequently, no tuna has currently been caught by Thai-flagged vessel. Therefore, all raw materials for tuna products derive from imported tunas. During 2016 – 2018, the total amount of imported tunas ranged from 702,812 - 792,397 tons per year with an average of 748,388 tons per year. Among these numbers, tropical tunas, i.e. bigeye tuna, skipjack tuna, and yellowfin tuna, made up 89.61% - 92.49% of total imported tunas.
In 2018, a total of 57,257 tons tropical tunas caught in the Indian Ocean were imported to Thailand. Skipjack tuna was the main species accounted for 69.82% of total import followed by yellowfin tuna and bigeye tuna, 23.58% and 6.60% respectively. Most of imported tuna were unloaded from carrier vessels made up 54,876 tons, 95.84% of total import, from 16 trips. While, there were 6 trips of purse seiners and 38 trips of longliners landing at Thai fishing ports and 1,807 tons, 3.16% of total import, and 574 tons, 1.00% of total import, were unloaded at Thai fishing ports respectively.