Why are whole tunas bought for so much when canned tuna is one of the cheapest foods you can get?
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Different species and parts of the tuna. Similar to how wagyu beef is more expensive than regular beef. And Beef tenderloin is a lot more expensive than hamburger. Different parts of an animal can cost different amounts, and that goes into the price of the overall animal. The tuna in a can is most likely the scraps and/or cheaper cuts of a tuna after all the “good parts” have been removed and processed. Just like how a lot of hamburger is just the leftover meat after the good steaks and roasts have been removed
It is not the same fish. Tuna is a group of fishes, not a single species.
The canned variant is most of the time albacore ( longfin tuna). The expensive variant is Bluefin tuna.
Two very different species of tuna. Bluefin is very expensive, relatively rare, and cannot be bred in captivity. These tuna are used for sushi and the like. Albacore tuna are plentiful (relatively) and can be farmed. These are the tuna used in canned tuna.
Part of the answer is the size of a can or tin of tuna is about 5 ounces. And not all of that is meat. let’s say there’s 3 ounces of actual meat in a can. that’s roughly 1/5 of a pound. Even bluefin tuna can wholesale for $20/lb so that’s only $4 for 3 ounces using wholesale. Good quality tuna where I live is about $2/lb. But the real answer is albacore tuna is used in canned tuna and it’s much less expensive wholesale than Bluefin.
Canned tuna is *not* one of the cheapest foods you can get. Cost per pound, its actually pretty expensive. (Michigan, USA)
Where do you live that canned tuna is so cheap? I’m jealous lol
The tuna in the can is not the same as the expensive tuna
A 1000 pound Bluefine tuna might go for $10,000 but that’s $10/pound and its going to be turned into sushi worth more than that. Yellowfin(Ahi) is also used for Tuna and similarly sells for a reasonably high price, especially for nicer cuts
Tuna in cans is generally Albacore Tuna which sells for closer to $1.50/pound and huge quantities are caught. The good meat will go to higher end cuts with the scraps going into canned tuna to further drive down the price.
Apart from the other comments, it’s also because one is fresh whereas the other is canned and can be done in ship factories, doesn’t require refrigeration, quick transport, etc.
Edit: I’ll add it here since people just seem to comment here instead of reading other top comments. Other reasons is because the fresh variety of tuna is another species, which cannot be farmed either.
Bluefin vs Skipjack or even some species that are “tuna” but not real tuna.
I think they did a study and some brands of canned tuna contained zero tuna. It was some other random pelagic fish.
Different fish.
Skipjack are often used in cheap canned tuna. They reproduce after 1 year, live for 4, grow to around 3 ft 70 lbs.
Bluefin are your expensive sushi fish. They don’t reproduce until they’re 5-15 years old, live into their 30s, can grow to nearly 10 ft 1,400 lbs.
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