Wholesale prices of bluefin tuna at the Toyosu Wholesale Market on 30 August, reported by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, averaged JPY 9,900 (USD 93.23, EUR 85.00) per kilogram for fresh domestic product, and JPY 3,196 (USD 30.10, EUR 27.44) for frozen imported.
Fresh product from Hokkaido fetched a high of JPY 14,040 (USD 132.24, EUR 120.55); other Japanese sources reached a high of JPY 7,560 (USD 71.21, EUR 64.91); and the high price for imported was 4,860 (USD 45.78, EUR 41.73).
Imported fresh southern bluefin tuna ranged from a high of JPY 4,212 (USD 39.67, EUR 36.17) to a low of JPY 1,620 (USD 15.26, EUR 13.91). Frozen, both imported and domestic ranged from JPY 4,860 (USD 45.78, EUR 41.73) down to JPY 864 (USD 8.14, EUR 7.42), with an average of JPY 1,801 (USD 16.96, EUR 15.46).
Even though Pacific bluefin are only marginally recovering from a low point, Japan and South Korea have both put forward proposals at the meeting of the Northern Committee of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) to increase the total allowable catch. The decision will be released on Friday, 6 September, at the end of the weeklong, closed-door meeting.
Ironically, even as Pacific bluefin are at a low level, prices have been falling.
“We actually commissioned [a study] about two years ago, when ICAAT, which manages bluefin in the Atlantic, they were thinking about raising quotas for Atlantic bluefin,” said Jamie Gibbon, a manager with the international fisheries team at The Pew Charitable Trusts. “And the study actually predicted that as worldwide supply of bluefin increases—let it be Atlantic bluefin, Southern bluefin or Pacific bluefin, globally prices were going to drop for all of them. And that’s actually what we’re starting to see. Because the Atlantic bluefin quotas have gone up so much, they’re seeing an effect for all of the bluefin species.”
Fresh bigeye tuna landed at Chiba port ranged from a high of JPY 3,024 (USD 28.48, EUR 25.97) to a low of 1,080 (USD 10.17, EUR 9.27), with an average of JPY 1,851 (USD 17.43, EUR 15.89). Frozen bigeye from foreign and domestic sources sold in the range of JPY 4,212 (USD 39.66, EUR 36.17) down to JPY 1,620 (USD 15.25, EUR 13.91).
Bigeye tuna are not farmed. Numbers are declining, as bigeye are often taken as bycatch when fish aggregation devices (FADs) are used to fish for other target tuna species. Controls on or improvements to FADs will heavily influence the future stock numbers and supply.
Frozen yellowfin tuna, foreign and domestic, ranged from a high of JPY 1,188 (USD 11.19, EUR 10.20) to a low of JPY 432 (USD 4.07, EUR 3.71), with an average of JPY 680 (USD 6.40, EUR 5.84).
