This study aims to identify the gender disparities between men and women as purchasing actors in the tuna value chain in South Central provinces, thereby suggesting gender-sensitive policies towards gender equity, women’s empowerment, and sustainable tuna fisheries management. The study was conducted with the aid of a set of structured questionnaires executed through personal interview surveys. Tam Quan and Quy Nhon fishing ports in Binh Dinh province were chosen as study sites for conducting gender analysis at the tuna value chain's purchasing stage in the South Central provinces of Vietnam. Forty respondents were directly interviewed at their home or at the fishing ports in Binh Dinh province in May 2020, of which are ten middlemen and nine middlewomen purchasing yellowfin and bigeye tunas at Tam Quan fishing port; and twelve middlewomen and nine female traders purchasing skipjack tuna at Quy Nhon fishing port. This study used gender analysis tools such as the Harvard, Moser, and the USAID's six gender dimensions to identify gender differences between men and women in the tuna purchasing stage in productive, reproductive, and community managing roles. Some policy recommendations for improving gender equity, women's empowerment, and sustainable tuna fisheries management were proposed, including (i) describe the importance of women's reproductive role in gender-responsive strategies; (ii) establish tuna trading management board at the fishing port to collect information on the needs, issues, and interests of purchasing actors; (iii) organize training courses on tuna business and management skills at the fishing ports during the low season for the full participation of middle-actors, especially women; (iv) provide access to savings, credit, and microfinance for female traders to create opportunities for expanding their business; (v) improve facilities at the fishing ports to increase the overall well-being of the fish trading communities; (vi) introduce alternative job opportunities for laborers in the tuna purchasing stage during the low season; (vii) support laborers trading yellowfin and bigeye tuna in seeking other ways to make a living due to the depletion of these tuna resources.

This paper presents the outputs of a Ministry of Science and Technology-funded national research project on fisheries value chain entitled “Developing Feasible and Comprehensive Policies for Sustainable Fisheries Development in Vietnam” completed in 2019. It was carried out to map the Vietnamese tuna value chain in terms of value chain description, including actors, material flows, volume, knowledge and information, relationships, linkages and trust, and values at different levels of the chain. The point of entry for undertaking this analysis was to identify specific income increasing interventions for fishers to achieve the project objective of better management of tuna fisheries and to improve socio-economic conditions of tuna fishing communities in Vietnam. Three South Central provinces of Binh Dinh, Phu Yen, Khanh Hoa were chosen for the investigation of the tuna value chain. This study was completed in four main phases, which consist of interview surveys, focus group discussions, individual key informant interviews, and a validation workshop. Four hundreds fishers, nineteen middlemen and traders, five processors, three wholesalers, and eight retailers were interviewed in the three investigated provinces during 2018. Several policy recommendations to increase the income and improve the position of fishers in the tuna value chain were proposed, which include (i) the collaboration among fishers to take advantage of purchasing input materials; (ii) the improvements on the handling and maintenance of tuna quality to increase fishers’ income; (iii) the establishment of tuna auction center to decrease financial detriment to fishers, increase their access to public and transparent market information, and strengthen their position in the chain; (iv) the formulation of savings, credit, and microfinance schemes to diversify forms of capital access for fishers; (v) the suggestion on a fair share of profits among shipowners, captains and cruise workers to reduce the vulnerability of the poor and increase the incentive for properly managing the tuna fisheries in Vietnam.

A value chain integrated Structure Conduct Performance (SCP) framework applied in agribusiness products in general and fishery products, in particular, is of great significance in conceptualizing the strategy design specifically to a value chain segment in a territory in terms of economic development. This study aims to analysed the market structure and financial performance of each actor in the tuna value chain in three South Central provinces of Vietnam to provide an overview of the economic efficiency of the value chain. Within the study, the interviews have been conducted with 315 respondents, including shipowners, middle-persons, and processors, directly related to the tuna value chain in 2018. The market concentration of each actor was quantitatively indicated in form of the Lorenz curve and Gini coefficient. In addition actor's financial performance was calculated by costs and earnings models. The results also showed that the market structure of middle-persons and processors tended to be monopolistic while shipowner's market structure tended to be in perfect competition. Besides, the processors received the highest return compared to other actors due to their highest value-added contribution and the most significant business scale. Finally, several policy interventions were suggested to improve the economic efficiency of the value chain.