Following profitable 2022, Nissui unveils its future aquaculture goals

Tokyo, Japan-based Nissui, Japan’s second-largest seafood company by revenue, is well on its way to achieving its revenue targets for its aquaculture operations it set for fiscal year (FY) 2024.

Nissui's sales of aquaculture products increased from JPY 59.9 billion (USD 425.5 million, EUR 383.2 million) to JPY 69.1 billion (USD 485 million, EUR 441 million) in FY 2022, a 15.3 percent increase year over year and 92 percent of its 2024 sales target, it reported in its annual report, released in May.

Nissui's operating income in the segment rose from JPY 5.6 billion (USD 39.3 million, EUR 35.7 million) in 2021 to JPY 8.9 billion (USD 62.5 million, EUR 56.8 million) in 2023, already exceeding the company’s 2024 target.

A weakened yen and the lifting of some Covid-19 restrictions in 2022 boosted profits on some of the company’s products, potentially skewing Nissui’s sales figures compared to an average fiscal year.

Nissui's overseas aquaculture production,  primarily comprising Nissui’s coho salmon and trout farming projects in Chile, accounted for 62 percent of the company’s total landed volume of 42,500 metric tons (MT). The company mainly ships E-trim trout fillets from its overseas production, which it promotes under its Five Star brand. Nissui's aquaculture-related overseas ventures consist mainly of owning Salmones Antarctica, which includes a feed mill in the Chilean city of Los Angeles, a processing plant and farm in Chiloe, and a farm in the southern region of Aysen.

Nissui said it expects Salmones Antarctica will increase overseas sales and aims to expand the subsidiary's earnings by increasing its production of processed products. To accomplish this, the company is expanding its Chilean processing plant, shooting for completion in September 2023.

Nissui reported its production spread in Japan was varied between yellowtail (23 percent), bluefin tuna (8 percent), salmon/trout (6 percent), and Japanese amberjack (1 percent). In Japan, the company wants to position itself as a leader in Seriola, or amberjack, aquaculture. It expanded its broodstock facility in April 2023 and is also replacing smaller net pens with fewer, but larger, net-pens at its Kushima yellowtail farm, which it said will result in increased production.

Nissui achieved 100 percent landing of artificial seedlings for yellowtail in FY 2022, which allows the company to offer the fish out of season – in summer rather than fall or winter – and avoid weight loss that typically occurs when using traditional methods. Long term, the company's plan is to produce 3 million yellowtail fish – up from a current 2 million – for a landed weight of 15,000 MT, by 2030. Additionally, the company is expanding its artificial seedlings and cultivation to salmon and Japanese amberjack (kampachi) in order to maintain competitiveness with global producers.

At its central research institute, the Oita Marine Research Center, Nissui is pursuing bluefin tuna breeding. This operation aims to combine the strengths of the company’s fishing and farming operations through short-term feeding of fish caught in June or July at anywhere between 80 and 150 kilograms. The process then entails fattening the fish to one and a half times their original weight for sale in the fall or, at latest, by the year’s end, when prices are high.

Nissui said across its aquaculture operations, it is working to analyze and implement technology to reduce risks, specifically targeting measures against red tides, fish diseases, and typhoons. This may include reviewing the arrangement of cages, selection of equipment, and use of particular farming sites.

In its domestic salmon/trout business, the company’s largest salmon farming site in Sakaiminato saw an improvement in survival rate from 76 percent in FY 2019 to an expected 97 percent in FY 2023. The volume at that farm rose from under 1,400 MT to about 1,700 MT landed weight in the same period.The company’s overall domestic trout survival rate increased dramatically to about 95 percent, up from 85 percent in 2021.

The company has developed technology for offshore aquaculture using submersible pens to avoid rough weather and a piped feeding system in cooperation with Nippon Steel Engineering.

To explore new business opportunities or expand the scale of existing projects by 2030, the company will commercialize prior feasibility studies on shrimp farming, expand yellowtail exports, develop new aquaculture locations, and establish land-based aquaculture technology.

In 2020, Nissui purchased a stake in Danish Salmon, which operates an indoor recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) facility in Hirtshals, Denmark, which recently recorded its first profitable year in business.

In Japan, the company has several land-based projects planned or underway, including the development of an RAS trout farm in the town of Yonago, a biofloc facility for vannamei shrimp, and land-based chub mackerel in Sakaiminato.  

Photo courtesy of Nissui