Yellowfin tuna prices on the southern European market are rising, driven by an increase of skipjack prices for delivery to Bangkok, Thailand, industry sources told Undercurrent News. Prices for yellowfin in hubs in Abidjan, in the Ivory Coast, and Seychelles were reported to have risen again to €2,500 per metric tons, sources said. In Italy and Spain, yellowfin tuna prices are moving towards €2,700/t, one source also noted. 

"Skipjack prices in Spain had fallen in July, but they are picking up again, up between €100-50/t in a week in the Indian and the Atlantic Ocean, where some sales already reached €1,200/t FOB," the latter source also said, noting that in Spain there were already offers for skipjack tuna at €1,400/t. 

In early August, Undercurrent reported that prices for skipjack tuna for delivery to Bangkok are increasing again, after hitting a two year-record low last month.  "The lowest price recorded was around $1,210 per-metric-ton," one US-based source told Undercurrent, pointing out that western Pacific Ocean boat owners have "reacted to even lower FOB price demands from traders". As a result, "the traders started shorting canneries and talked of a fish shortage, the [price] tendency reversed, and now it's possible the price may well sail through $1,300/t on its way towards $1,350/t or $1,400/t in the near term", the US source said. 

Spanish seizure

Meanwhile, a total of 45 metric tons of frozen tuna for canning were sized in Coruna, Spain and three other Spanish provinces, La Voz de Galicia reported. The product was being sold as if it was fresh tuna for human consumption at a much higher price.  "The fraudulent sale of yellowfin that has not been correctly declared is concerning," one source said.

Four people are being investigated on the fraud as part of the "Atunali" operation, which took place in Alicante, Murcia, Coruna, and Barcelona since January, according to the Spanish media report.

Spanish agents first seized 10t of bigeye tuna, claiming it did not have sufficient traceability necessary for commercialization. Later, they located in another plant several lots of frozen yellowfin tuna that did not have certification of origin nor info on the system used for its freezing process.

The product, coming from the Atlantic Ocean, had been chopped and processed with additives, according to La Voz de Galicia. Three other companies and the three owners of fishing vessels, of French, Salvadoran and Panamanian nationality, have been involved in this fraud, according to the report. The fishing vessels did not have a system to freeze tuna in brine at a temperature below -18º C, as requested by EU regulation for tuna for human consumption. 

Source

https://www.undercurrentnews.com/2018/08/16/yellowfin-tuna-prices-follow-skipjack-up/