Posted on July, 22 2015

Large-scale US-based tuna importer Western United Fish Company supports WWF’s Vietnam Fishery Improvement Project (FIP) in guiding the longline and handline tuna industry on the path towards sustainability, and ultimately, Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification. President and CEO Alex Hung is as passionate about sustainable seafood as he is committed to educating fishers on responsible fishing practices to help secure the sustainability of tuna and fishers’ livelihoods in his original hometown of Tuy Hoa in Vietnam. Read up on his seafood journey below. 
 

Tell us about your role in Western United, and how you got started in this profession. 

I am the founder and President/CEO of Western United Fish Company. I got into the seafood fish industry in 1995, after my first visit to my hometown of Tuy Hoa, Phu Yen Province, Vietnam. While visiting my family in Tuy Hoa, I hear local fishermen telling stories about how they caught these large yellowfin tuna while netting for flying fish. These tuna were feeding on the flying fish, and got caught in the nets. Fishermen at the time were netting flying fish and salting them on board for the dry salted fish market in the Vietnam highlands. 
 
I asked about the local market for tuna, and they said they were selling in Qui Nhon for Vietnamese Dong (VND) 7,000 (about US$ .50) per kg. After my visit I contacted some Japanese classmates from college who had returned to Japan to work in the seafood industry. They told me that there was a huge market for fresh tuna in Japan. 
 
I left Vietnam in 1979, when I was 11 years old, and settled in Bismarck, North Dakota. The midwest of the United States is not a major seafood market area, so I did not have much exposure to the seafood industry. I was relying on my Japanese friends to advise and educate me. In 1996 I recruited a dozen local fishing boats, mostly belonging to my relatives, to start longlining for tuna. I imported the gear from Taiwan. A Japanese technician from Japan was brought to Tuy Hoa to train fishermen on the handling of the fresh tuna post-harvest. We started shipping fresh tuna to Japan from Tuy Hoa in 1996.
 
The business climate in Vietnam in the 1990s was limited. Private enterprises were not yet allowed, so we had to go through a local government-run seafood export company to be the exporter. Infrastructure for producing packaging materials, dry ice, and refrigerated trucks to transport fresh fish to the airport for export was non-existent. Airline carriers did not have freight rates for fresh tuna products at the time. I spent most of 1996 in Vietnam getting this operation established for the sole purpose of trying to develop a venture for my siblings to live on. 
 
After a couple of years, I recognized that this source of tuna in Tuy Hoa was untapped and had a lot of potential.  Back in the US in 1997, I focused on studying the US seafood industry, and started developing the market for fresh tuna from Vietnam. In 1997, we shipped the first fresh tuna shipment to the US West Coast. According to US Customs, this was the very first shipment of fresh tuna from Vietnam. 
 
Today, Western United Fish Company is the largest importer of fresh tuna in the US. Western United is a major seafood processor/wholesale distributor in the West Coast, with operations in Hawaii and Asia. 
 

As a Vietnamese-American, what are your impressions of the economic development in Vietnam? What are the challenges faced by the country's tuna exports in order to meet requirements of buyers and consumers in the US, such as sustainability and traceability?

Tuna is one of the major seafood export commodities from Vietnam.  A few years ago, Vietnam was one of the largest exporters of fresh tuna to the US market. The Vietnamese government recognized this potential, and has allocated resources in the form of bank loans and fuel subsidies to support fishermen. In terms of sustainability and traceability, there is a lot of room for improvement. The Fishery Improvement Project (FIP) through WWF is a major step, in collaboration with the Vietnamese government, towards achieving this goal. 
 
Due to information on sustainability and traceability promoted by major retailers and distributors in the US, consumers today have a lot more knowledge, and are much more sensitive when purchasing seafood products. 
 

What role do seafood companies play in bringing about more sustainable fisheries in Vietnam and the region? Tell us about of the effort of Western United to advance more responsible fisheries.

The role of seafood companies should focus more on educating local fishermen on market requirements and the changing market conditions. The gap between the buyer marketing fish and the fishermen harvesting the fish should be narrower in terms of knowledge. Harvesting a boatload of poor quality fish is less productive than harvesting half a load of good quality fish. 
 
I have focused and allocated resources to educate fishermen in Vietnam and throughout the regions that we source fish from. In Tuy Hoa, we have organized a symposium on fisheries sustainability and a workshop for the Western United fleet on best fishing practices. I invited customers from the US, Canada, and Asia, along with our fishery consultant and representatives from the government, to speak to local fishermen and educate them with information from our end of the spectrum. 
 
In Vietnam and throughout other regions, Western United simply does not buy fish from fishermen or fleets that do not belong to our cooperative group. In order to supply fish to us, fishermen must go through a process of signing on to our harvest fleet. 
  

How has your relationship with WWF evolved, and what benefits does the yellowfin tuna FIP provide to your company and its supply chain?

WWF is a credible organization and good references. Information campaigns and seminars organized by WWF serve as credible marketing tools for Western United in promoting sustainable and traceable fisheries.
 

Based on your experience, how critical is the state of our fish stocks in the region? How will this affect food security and livelihoods in the near future? 

In early 2000, we exported approximately 1,500 metric tons (MT) of headed and gutted (H&G) fresh tuna from Vietnam. This volume has dropped to 800 MT in 2007, and has been hovering around 300 to 500 MT over the past five years. This year, that will be around 300 MT of fresh export. Of the six regions in Asia that we source fresh tuna from, Vietnam had the largest volume in the early 2000s, and is now the smallest compared to other regions.
 
Tuna is a migratory species in the South China Sea. There are so many factors affecting the migration patterns of tuna into the prime fishing ground for Vietnam. Seiners that are allowed to fish between the Philippines and Indonesia—a breeding ground for tuna—have made a huge negative impact on migrating juvenile tuna stocks, affecting productivity in the South China Sea. The recent territorial claim in the South China Sea by China has also impacted fishermen in Vietnam by limited and reducing fishing grounds for local Vietnamese tuna fishing fleets.  

This is extremely critical to local economies that depend so much on the tuna industry, like my hometown of Tuy Hoa. The livelihoods of so many local people in Binh Dinh, Phu Yen, and Khanh Hoa have been affected as a result of the poor catch. Unlike Khanh Hoa and Binh Dinh, which have huge tourist industries to support their economy, the economy in Phu Yen relies heavily on the tuna industry. Poor catches this year has already had an economic impact on Tuy Hoa.
 

What role do consumers play in all this? What can they do to help?

Consumers should be more aware of branding. Certain brands of seafood are harvested and produced with full compliance and conformability with social, sustainable, and eco-friendly methods.