Frozen Skipjack Tuna Supplier: Whole Round, Loins and Steaks

Product overview

Skipjack is the volume tuna of world trade, and most of the catch ends up in a can or a retort pouch. Thailand is one of the leading tuna canning centers in the world: purse-seine carriers discharge frozen skipjack in Bangkok for loining and canning plants, many of them close to the capital, and the Bangkok skipjack price is followed across the industry as a reference. Our offers serve buyers along that chain, from canners and pouch packers who need raw material by species and size, to loin buyers who would rather not butcher whole fish, to distributors placing steaks with foodservice and retail customers.

Katsuwonus pelamis is a fast-growing tropical tuna caught mostly by purse seine, either on free-swimming schools or around fish aggregating devices (FADs), with a smaller pole-and-line catch from fisheries such as the Maldives and parts of Indonesia. Most raw material reaching Thai processors comes from the Western and Central Pacific, the largest skipjack fishery, with further lots from the Indian Ocean, landed by vessels on the authorized lists of the relevant tuna commission, WCPFC or IOTC. Every offer names the ocean, FAO area, gear and vessel flag, because those details decide which catch documents your market needs and tell you how the fish were handled on board.

Whole round fish are frozen in brine in the vessel’s wells and graded by individual weight, in bands such as 1.4⁠–⁠1.8 kg, 1.8⁠–⁠2.5 kg, 2.5⁠–⁠3.4 kg and 3.4 kg and up, since yield and cannery throughput both change with size. Precooked loins are made by thawing, steaming and cooling the fish, then removing skin, bones and dark meat before the loins are vacuum-packed and frozen; raw loins and bandsaw-cut steaks are frozen without cooking. Lots are checked for species mix, since purse-seine sets can include juvenile yellowfin and bigeye, and for size spread, salt taken up from the brine, burst bellies, crush damage and histamine. Precooked loins are also assessed for color, texture, bone fragments and leftover dark meat.

Canneries in Europe and other markets buy precooked loins to fill cans and pouches locally, and Japanese makers of katsuobushi and dashi flakes buy whole frozen skipjack as their raw material. For sashimi and steak menus that call for deeper red, firmer meat, see frozen yellowfin tuna. Heads, frames and other streams from tuna loining are covered under fish processing by-products, and the guide to reefer containers and cold chain explains set points and the records a claim depends on.