JAPAN
Market Trend Sashimi Tuna Market: Consumer demand for sashimi tuna is seasonally low in June throughout Japan and this trend will continue until the school holiday begins in July. The present limited demand is mostly served by good landings of locally caught bigeye. As a result imports of air-flown bluefin and yellowfin have declined at present. Reportedly there is growing concern among the Japanese tuna marketers over the falling supply and stringent resource management program for wild-caught tuna. Taking advantage of the lean demand period, Japanese tuna industry leaders are having frequent meetings and discussions about the future of this industry including the global supply situation. Future supply shortage remains a major concern and large scale tuna farming is being considered seriously. Maruha Group, once a leading tuna fishing company in Japan, is venturing into a bluefin tuna farming project in Japan with technical assistance from several universities in Japan. Imports: Following several tuna management programmes and fishing restrictions worldwide, global tuna landings have started to shrink but import values are moving up. These are reflected in the Japanese tuna import figures during January-March 2007. Total tuna (fresh and frozen) imports during this time fell by nearly 20% in quantity to 69 505 MT compared to 86 430 MT last year same period. Import value on the other hand, increased by 11.5% to ¥70 billion during this period. Fresh tuna imports were record low at 10 334 MT.
Frozen tuna imports during the first quarter of this year were also at a five-year low and totaled 45 822 MT worth nearly ¥40 billion. In addition, the market imported more than 13 000 MT of tuna loins/meat (mostly frozen), which is notably higher than the air-flown fresh whole tuna imports during the reporting period.
The import value of fresh/ frozen tuna loins and tuna meats (13 317 MT) was ¥30 billion during January-March 2007. Current demand for frozen tuna from supermarkets is low; consumers are mostly after locally caught fresh skipjack – a popular seafood item among Japanese households. Hence sales of frozen sashimi tuna are quite low at present. The market for frozen loins, saku and steaks is rather stable with steady demand for sashimi and non-sashimi usage. Canning materials Skipjack: Local katsuobushi processors in Japan are facing an acute shortage of raw materials as demand from canners in Asia, the Americas and Europe increased following a global shortage. This may induce higher imports of processed katsuobushi, particularly from the Asia/Pacific region. Meanwhile Papua New Guinea has requested Japan to reduce import duty on bushi (dried) products which is currently 7% compared to zero% offered to Solomon Islands. Last year, Japan imported 7 090 MT of bushi products (boiled/dried skipjack and bonito) at an import value of US$ 27.45 million. The main suppliers were the Philippines, Indonesia, China, Solomon Islands, Maldives and Vietnam. Yellowfin: Supply shortage and high prices continue amidst strong competition among domestic tuna canners. THAILAND
With increasing raw material price and supply shortage, canned tuna would no longer be a cheap item in future. Bangkok skipjack price has been reported to be over US$1300/MT. Even at this price supplies are hard to get as poor catches continue everywhere. Canneries in the Eastern Pacific area are constantl VIETNAM
According to a national news source, a Vietnamese fisheries authority has identified deep sea tuna fishing as the future development sector. Tuna fishing has expanded lately in the provinces of Binh, Phu Yen, and Khanh Hoa; exports are on the rise to Japan, the USA, and the EU totaling US$78 million in 2005. Tuna exports consisted of fresh and frozen dressed fish, loins, steaks and treated tuna products as well. | |||||||||||||||||
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