MARKETING TUNA IN THE UNITED STATES 



by 



Donald Y. A ska 1/ 



Certainly no discussion of the domestic tuna processing industry would be 

 complete without including marketing - the final link in the chain from fisherman to 

 consumer. Marketing any strongly competitive commodity is attended by a number of prob- 

 lems and we certainly do not claim to have a knowledge of all these problems confronting 

 the domestic tuna canning industry. Moreover, I know that we, as a Government agency, 

 do not have any responsibility in connection with many of these problems. Accordingly, 

 I am going to dismiss almost entirely those marketing factors which in our opinion are 

 the responsibility of the tuna producing and processing industry as a segment of American 

 private enterprise and confine my comments to those wherein the industry and the Govern- 

 ment have related interests. 



Our staff has been giving a lot of 

 thought to the marketing problems facing 

 the industry; what distinguishes them 

 from other earner's problems, such as 

 canners of fruits, vegetables and meats; 

 what is the present merchandising situ- 

 ation; what is the Government doing and 

 what could it do; and, finally, what is 

 the trade doing and what are some of the 

 recommendations that might be appropriate, 

 coming from a Government agency, for the 

 trade to consider. 



What are the problems of the tuna can- 

 ners and why are they different from those 

 of other food canners? As we see it, each 

 of the canners, whether canners of tuna, 

 fruit, vegetable or meats, is faced with 

 the problems of the bigs and the smalls; 

 advertised and private labels; the cost 

 of raw materials, labor, processing and 

 distribution etc.; moving inventories and 

 keeping the pipe lines filled; getting 

 maximum distribution through broker rep- 

 resentation; internal rivalry with others 

 in the same business; increasing competi- 

 tion from other protein foods; the constant 

 fight at the retail level for additional 

 shelf space; cost of field warehousing; 

 floor stock guarantees; development of new 

 products; the constant struggle to make 



1/ Chief, Branch of Market Development, 

 Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, 

 Washington, D. C. 



better "silent salesmen" out of the labels; 

 and the increasing costs of advertising. 

 The country is strewn with bankrupt and 

 cobwebbed fruit and vegetable canneries 

 whose managements failed to meet these 

 challenges. Our objective, of course, is 

 to do whatever we can, in line with Gov- 

 ernment responsibility, to see that the 

 same thing does not happen in the tuna 

 canning industry. 



What are the conditions which set the 

 tuna canning industry apart from these 

 other food canners? While canned tuna is 

 probably as fortunate as any item in being 

 nationally distributed and is probably 

 consumed at a greater rate than any other 

 canned fish, it still requires that con- 

 tinued, uphill fight to command the place 

 in the American diet of such canned foods 

 as peas, com, tomatoes, beans, peaches, 

 citrus concentrates and other fruits and 

 vegetables. So there is that constant 

 struggle to develop and increase a clientel. 

 There is the competition from imports; 

 there is distance from centers of produc- 

 tion, and competition for the raw material; 

 there are frequently supply and delivery 

 problems; the complexity of labor- management 

 negotiations; and there is the fact that 

 there is no profitable "back up" item in 

 the tuna trade. You have mackerel, squid, 

 anchovies and sardines, but these are not 

 consistently profitable back-up items. In 

 contrast, the typical California fruit 

 canner has a schedule that starts with 



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