Fully farmed bluefin tuna is now being exported from Japan to the European Union and the United States, the Nikkei Asian Review reported on 17 September.
Kyokuyo already exports its closed-cycle bluefin tuna to the U.S.A. and will add Europe as a destination. Maruha Nichiro plans to do the same, according to Nikkei.
Both companies raise bluefin tuna bred from artificially-hatched eggs. Japan’s Kinki University mastered the process in 2002 and began sales in 2004, and several Japanese companies now run their own commercial egg-to-table aquaculture processes for bluefin tuna, including Nippon Suisan Kaisha. Prior to this development, farmed tuna was produced by capturing juvenile fish and growing them out in pens, a process that is still in wide use today. However, the practice has been criticized as threatening conservation of the species, as it involves capturing tuna before they have a chance to breed.
Since 2012, Kyokuyo and aquafeed-maker Feed One have operated a closed-cycle bluefin farming joint venture and have now achieved enough success to enable them expand sales beyond the domestic Japanese market, Nikkei reported. The companies plan to export around 35 metric tons (MT) of their new product, using their separate sales channels, with Kyukuyo focusing on Europe and Feed One targeting Singapore and other Asian markets.
"Distributors overseas like the idea because they care about wildlife conservation," Kyokuyo President Makoto Inoue said in an interview with Nikkei.
Maruha Nichiro began exporting its closed-cycle bluefin tuna in the 2017 fiscal year, shipping around 300 MT worth JPY 900 million (USD 8.1 million, EUR 6.8 million). In the current fiscal year, the company plans to expand its sales into Europe, hoping to take advantage of rising interest in Japanese food, according to company aquaculture director Akira Ito. It will start with the Netherlands and expand beyond that as the project advances, Nikkei reported.
While its closed-cycle bluefin-rearing operations have yet to turn a profit, the company expects that to change in the current fiscal year thanks to advances in survival rates of its reared tuna and its drive to expand exports. Maruha Nichiro operates two closed-cycle bluefin facilities – one in Saiki, Oita Prefecture, and the other in Kushimoto, Wakayama Prefecture – and both have been cleared as safe to export product into the E.U.
Seeking both to show its operations are sustainable and to help its brand imaging in Europe and Asia, Maruha Nichiro said it plans to seek Aquaculture Stewardship Council certification for its closed-cycle bluefin tuna operation in the near future.
The certification might also help the company justify the higher cost for the product, which retails for a 15 percent mark-up in Japan. Fully farmed tuna retails for JPY 3,000 to 3,200 (USD 26.63 to 28.41, EUR 22.68 to 24.19) per kilogram due to the extra expenses of the closed-cycle operation versus the traditional ranching process.
In the last fiscal year, Japanese companies exported approximately 1,000 MT of closed-cycle farmed tuna. That represented an all-time high, but also represented just 10 percent of Japan’s total exports of farmed tuna, according to Japan’s Fisheries Agency.
Photo courtesy of Kyokuyo
