Focus On: JAPANff

By Atuna

The Japanese tuna industry is the most traditional in the world. The country spread the “sushi culture” all over the globe and still remains the major consumer for over a century. Tuna is embroidered in Japan’s culture and daily habits, as well as the country tradition of fishing for protein-enriched species.

According to the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC), in 2007, the Japanese fleet was represented by 1.208 longliners, 335 pole-and-liners and 119 purse seiners in the Pacific Ocean.

Most of the catches by the Japanese fishery are done by purse seiners, which represented 56% of total tuna catch in 2006, followed by pole-and-line with 27% and longline with 15% of the catches in that same year.

The tuna landings in 2008 have reached 293.034 M/T last August.  From that amount, 35% represented fresh fish, such as bluefin (2.670 M/T) and albacore (27.682 M/T). The remaining tuna landings were frozen tuna, with emphasis on skipjack (159.923 M/T) and bigeye (14.391 M/T).

 

The average market –wholesale- prices, until August 2008, were released by the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries last October. The increasing demand combined with oil prices and the decline of tuna stocks resulted in a price fluctuation of the species.

Fresh bluefin was first sold in Japan for USD 45.005 per M/T in January 2008, dropping to USD 12.487 M/T last August; a 73% plunge in 8 months.

The general market trend shows a decline of the prices for fresh tuna products over the past year and a lift in frozen tuna prices of all the major species.

Nevertheless, the ups and downs of Japanese tuna prices did not seem to affect the population consuming habits. The retail prices for sashimi tuna increased only a tiny 1% in Tokyo supermarkets between 2006 and 2007.

The price Japanese population pay for tuna sashimi has been more or less stable for the past three years. In 2005, the average retail price was USD 39 per kg in Tokyo and the average price from January to August of 2008 reached USD 40 per kg in the same city. The buffer that the high margins have provided for the retailers can explain the neutral effect of increased tuna wholesale prices in final consumer prices.

The high consumption of tuna in Japan has resulted in a very heavy exploitation of the stocks. By the early 1970’s, Japan had almost exhausted its local stocks of tuna and in the following decades the stocks of bluefin became also heavily exploited in other parts of the Pacific, Atlantic and Mediterranean oceans. Nearly half of the fishery stocks in the waters surrounding Japan are now at a low resource level.

Nevertheless, according to the Japanese Ministry of Fisheries, the country’s population prefers to consume local tuna; therefore, one of the objectives listed in the Ministry’s annual report is to maximize local production and exports.

Nowadays the country is still the largest tuna market in the world and faces several problems in proving tuna products sustainability. Tuna ranching in north Australia became an alternative for Japanese market to avoid all the problems with piracy and tuna laundering entering the country.

Japan depends on imports for about 40% of fishery products, and according to the annual report of its Ministry of Fisheries, the country “cannot depend too much on imports” due the great rise on international prices.

Moreover, Japan is a member of WFCPC and invests in scientific studies such as the tagging program of bigeye and yellowfin which has been taking place since 1999 in southern Japan. The objective is to learn more about the species migratory behavior. 

Last December, Japan’s own eco-label system was established and it is expected to be found in seafood products on supermarket shelves by the end of 2008.

Regarding stocks management and surveillance of Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated fishing activities, Japan relies on RFMOs’ regulations to ban imports of tuna “other than those produced through justifiable procedures”, the report finalizes.