Canned fish go further

than live ones

If the Tuna Treaty is ratified and implemented, and if current price levels persist, these are the approximate prices of a pound of canned tuna caught by American boats at various points along the way to the American supermarket: Island Governments receive from in dustry Scents Island Governments receive from U.S. Government 15 cents Tuna boat operators receive $.90-$1.05 Canneries receive (avg. 1985 price) $1.51 Consumers pay $1.69-$3.42 The prices above are for a pound of canned tuna; about three pounds of raw fish are needed for each pound of the finished product. In the rough calculations above it is assumed that the costs of the tuna boat operator includes the licence fee, that the cannery’s costs include paying the tuna boats, and the like. All prices are in U.S. dollars.

What is notable about these num bers (a point not made to RIM by the industry) is the relatively high portion of the retail price paid to the primary producers, the fishermen.

A comparison (and not an exact one) can be made to the bread

industry. In the U.S. a wheat farmer gets about 4 cents a pound for his product, and then goes to the super market where he can buy bread for 80 or 90 cents a pound. (Wheat to bread includes more processing than skipjack to canned tuna, and bread, being light and delicate, is more expensive to transport than tuna, while bread is perishable, as canned tuna is not, but the comparison remains.) There appear to be two factors which keep down the retail price of canned tuna; one is the growing presence of low-priced foreign com petition and the tradition that Amer ican supermarkets place a relatively low mark-up on canned fish.

According to Progressive Grocer, the trade paper, the average markup (gross profit) for supermarket pro ducts is 24 per cent; it is about 20 per cent for canned tuna. (American supermarkets often use “loss leaders” which include such staples as canned tuna and sugar.) The tuna prices above arc approximations and averages. Raw fish from the islands arc purchased for between $6OO and $7OO a ton (30 to 35 cents a pound) by the canneries with actual prices varying according to the species and the size, with

larger fish commanding more than smaller ones.

The tuna industry in the U.S., unlike petroleum, is not vertically integrated. In other words, Ralston- Purina (Star-Kist) and H. J. Heinz (Van Camp), for example, though corporate giants in the food business, own neither fishing boats nor super markets (while oil giants own oil wells and retail outlets).

Fishing is done usually by family owned boats (sometimes with loans from the canneries), most of the families are Portuguese or Italian in background, and most are based in Southern Californian ports.

For the last twenty-five years Amer ican television viewers have been watching the antics of Charlie the tuna who is not quite good enough to be a Star-Kist tuna.

In the commercials the animated Charlie used a wide variety of ruses to outwit those who regard Charlie as a tuna low life; he always fails and is told “Sorry, Charlie” you are not good enough for Star-Kist.

The Star-Kist ads are created by the Chicago advertising agency, Leo Burnett, and promote tuna packed at Ralston-Purina’s canners in Amer ican Samoa and Puerto Rico.

While the ads may not sound as charming in print as they are on the screen, they have made a major impact on American consumers, who buy more than $l5OO million worth of canned tuna annually. David S.

North.