Frozen Tuna (Skipjack, Yellowfin & Loins)

Whole round skipjack and yellowfin for canneries, pre-cooked loins for packers

Cannery tuna is bought whole round by size band, and the band decides both the price and the yield. Skipjack (Katsuwonus pelamis, HS 0303.43) trades in the 1.4-1.8 kg, 1.8-3.4 kg and 3.4 kg-up bands, yellowfin (Thunnus albacares, HS 0303.42) in 3-10 kg, 10-20 kg and 20 kg-up, and the larger fish yield more loin per kilo of whole fish - a cannery works on a 40-45% loin recovery for skipjack and higher for large yellowfin. Purse-seine fish is brine frozen on board to -18°C or, on the better vessels and longliners, blast or ultra-low frozen; the salt uptake from brine freezing is a specification (typically under 1.5% in the flesh) because it carries into the can. Histamine is tested on every lot, with the usual ceiling of 100 ppm mean and 200 ppm maximum under EU and Codex practice, and canneries also grade on the proportion of fish with belly burst or pale flesh. Pre-cooked frozen loins (HS 1604 once cooked, but bought under the same book) let a packer skip the cooking and cleaning line and are sold vacuum packed, 6-12 kg per bag, from loining plants in Southeast Asia, Ecuador and the Indian Ocean. UN Comtrade 2025 export declarations under HS 0303, which cover all frozen fish, give the shape of the supply side: Indonesia 341k MT at an average USD 2,113/MT, India 345k MT at USD 1,754, Thailand 77.7k MT at USD 1,900 and the USA 546k MT at USD 4,041, the US and Indonesian averages being lifted by higher-value species. Oman's 2025 destination list shows 53.4k MT going to Thailand at USD 1,414/MT - raw material for the Bangkok and Samut Sakhon canneries - and 48.9k MT to China.

The buyer is a cannery in Thailand, the Philippines, Ecuador, Spain, Ghana, Mauritius, Seychelles or the Gulf, or a packer that buys loins for retail cans and pouches, and it contracts against the Bangkok skipjack landed price by size band with adjustments for salt, histamine and defects on inspection. CBIL is a commodity brokerage company and brokers whole round frozen skipjack and yellowfin and pre-cooked frozen loins from Indonesian, Indian, Omani, Thai and Ecuadorian packers, trader positions and carrier transhipments against a plant health certificate, a catch certificate or IUU documentation where the destination requires it, and a surveyor's report on size band, core temperature, salt and histamine. Every lot is finfish, species-declared and certifiable as halal by the destination's accepted certifier; CBIL does not broker shrimp, prawn, crab, lobster, squid, octopus, cuttlefish or clams, and the tuna book carries no bycatch of any of them. Whole fish moves in 40-ft high-cube reefer containers of about 25-27 MT, loose or in 20 kg cartons, or in reefer carrier holds for cannery-scale lots; reefer freight is quoted through the lines and forwarders, and LaycanDesk, our chartering desk, is only relevant on the rare occasion a full reefer carrier is fixed. Send the species, size band, freezing method, salt ceiling and discharge port and we will work the offer against the current landed price.