fv5o 



Figure 1. 



cherries in June and then moves progres- 

 sively through apricots, peaches, pears, 

 tomatoes, and similar other profitable 

 commodities. Also few tuna canneries are 

 geared to pack the institutional size can 

 and miss out on this part of the market. 



What are the present marketing situa- 

 tions and practices? In discussing the 

 marketing and merchandising of any con- 

 sumer product, we must first establish 

 what we are working with, who our present 

 customers are, who our competitors are 

 and what factors have led up to today's 

 conditions. 



MARKETABLE PRODUCTS 



While the tuna industry produces a 

 number of products that are different in 

 style of pack, the domestic market is 

 dominated by the canned product. This in 

 turn is dominated by the 1/2 pound can, 

 which is accepted as the standard in sta- 

 tistical reports. From figure 1 you will 

 note that no reference is made to the 

 family size or 2>fk size can which was in- 

 troduced in 1958 or the institutional pack 

 which represents only about one percent 

 of the total pack. But, as the type of 

 container varies, so does the style of 

 pack. Tuna meats are packed as solid, 

 chunk, or grated. Figure 2 shows the 

 tremendous increase in the popularity of 

 the chunk style pack in contrast to the 

 decrease in the grated pack and the prac- 

 tically steady production of solid pack. 

 Note that the graph is broken at 1952. 

 Prior to that year, chunk and grated were 



combined in our statistics and it was not 

 until after 1951 that the tremendous 

 growth in the chunk pack justified its 

 separation statistically. There are a 

 number of other items, though not actually 

 competitive, that are dwarfed by the pre- 

 viously mentioned packs. These include: 

 tuna and noodles ; strained tuna for baby 

 food j the dietetic pack; tuna spreads, 

 canned smoked tuna; creamed tuna; tuna 

 frankfurters; and frozen tuna pies and 

 casseroles. Tuna loins, processed by 

 smoking and curing to simulate the taste 

 and appeal of ham, have been experimented 

 with and they may eventually find a mar- 

 ket in this country. 



There are also several byproducts of 

 the tuna processing trade of considerable 

 importance. One that has experienced 

 tremendous growth in recent years is pet 

 food. In 1957 this country produced about 

 7-l/U million standard cases of fish-based 

 pet foods with tuna accounting for about 

 9 percent. Other byproducts are fish 

 meal, oil and solubles. While these in- 

 dustrial products are important, the 

 mainstay of the industry is the sale of 

 canned products for human consumption. 



DISTRIBUTION 



Although it is extremely difficult to 

 get figures on the distribution of imported 

 tuna, we were able to get some unofficial 

 figures from one prominent eastern United 

 States Japanese importer. These indi- 

 cated that, of the white meat tuna brought 

 into this country, approximately one-third 

 was in the four pound or institutional 

 size can and the remaining two-thirds was 

 in the one-half and one pound cans. In 

 the light meat, however, it was about 

 50-50. Also, on the basis of the first 

 six months consumer panel data furnished 

 under our contract with the Market Re- 

 search Corporation of America, foreign 

 produced tuna was distributed about as 

 follows: New England, 70 percent; 

 Central United States, 15 percent; Pacific 

 Coast, 7 percent; and the balance spread 

 throughout the country. This bears out 

 our contention that the sale of domestic 

 and imported tuna varies markedly by 

 region. For instance, the Market Research 

 Corporation of America average from 

 October 1958 to March 1959, shows that in 

 the New England region, the reported 



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