Tuna Fetches 3.8 Mil. Yen = USD 33 Thousand In Year’s 1st Auction At Tokyo Fish Marketff

A 191-kilogram bluefin tuna fetched 3.82 million yen ($32,800) in the first auction at Tokyo's Tsukiji fish market on Thursday morning as food wholesale markets opened for business for the New Year across Japan.

This year’s highest successful bid, which is equivalent to about 20,000 yen per kg, compares with 5.85 million yen paid for a 234-kg tuna, or 25,000 yen per kg, in last year's first auction at the market, officially known as the Metropolitan Central Wholesale Market.

The fish, caught off Aomori Prefecture, was included with wild ones caught in domestic waters as well as farm-raised ones from Spain, Turkey, Mexico and other places.

Tuna prices were high at the end of last year due to poor catches as a result of stormy weather. A 285-kg wild bluefin tuna fetched more than 11 million yen, or 39,000 yen per kg, on Dec. 29.

But prices have since declined in line with increases in catches, market officials said.