Summer eel consumption in Japan fell year-on-year between 20 and 30 percent, the Nippon Keizai Shimbun reported.
A shortage of fry in the spring led to high prices, which in turn reduced demand. For the 2019 summer outlook, fishing for elvers will begin in December, but stocks are low, so prices should remain high.
Around the year 2000 was the peak for eel consumption. Many eels were supplied from China, and were retailed in supermarkets for about JPY 1,000 (USD 9.20, EUR 8.10) per eel. The Japanese used to eat more than 70 percent of the eel harvested worldwide, but because of the decrease in resources, they have become luxury goods. Many Japanese people now cannot afford to eat them, and 60 percent of the consumption is overseas.
Instead of the Japanese eel (Anguilla japonica), which has been much reduced, producers are moving to other species. Exports of the European eel (Anguilla anguilla) outside of the European Union are restricted, but the American eel (Anguilla rostratais) is still available. Also, the Japanese are beginning to try other eels like the shortfin eel (Anguilla bicolor) from the Philippines and Indonesia.
Japan has made some efforts to advance international restrictions on harvests of Japanese eel, which breed in an area including Japan, Taiwan, Korea and China, but China has declined to participate. There have been voluntary restrictions agreed among the countries since 2014, limiting the volume of elvers that can be put into farm ponds, but China has resisted a formal agreement.
The main driver behind the effort is Japan’s desire to avoid the addition of Japanese eel to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora’s (CITES, also known as the Washington Convention) official list of endangered species. In 2014, Japan announced a 20 percent reduction in the harvest of elvers, and requested the same action from China and Taiwan, which farm for the Japanese market. However, because habitat loss and barriers to up- and down-stream migration remain problems, the reduction in the harvest alone may be inadequate to prevent a listing on CITES.
For Chinese producers, the U.S. is the second-largest export destination, but that is on the decline due to the threat of higher tariffs. Instead, consumption within China is increasing.
Photo courtesy of Greenpeace
