The average price for domestic seine net-caught frozen bluefin tuna at Tokyo’s Tsukiji auction on 29 January was JPY 4,586 per kilogram. Domestic farmed blufin tuna averaged JPY 3,575 and Spanish farmed came in at JPY 3,500, according to a market report of the website Marunaka-net.
Data from the Japan Fisheries Association shows that in 2009, average prices of all frozen bluefin declined at the beginning of the year, reflecting the end of holiday demand, and increased in the summer to around JPY 3,700, reflecting supply concerns. Prices then fell to around JPY 3,000 for the final months of the year amid weak holiday demand in the recession. But in 2010, prices tended to rise fairly steadily throughout the year, and this trend continued into January 2011.
The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) cut the Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic bluefin harvest in 2010 by 60 percent, and in November further cut the 2011 harvest from 13,500 metric tons to a likely level of 11,500 metric tons, assuming the body adopts the more conservative end of its proposed range, which would give a 60 to 77 percent chance of recovery to maximum sustainable yield by 2022.
The moderate cut for 2011 was reported by the Japanese media as being the result of a successful Japanese negotiating strategy that stressed better control of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, especially lax control of the harvesting of juvenile tuna by France and Italy, rather than drastic catch reductions or an outright ban.
Tokyo-based Maruha-Nichiro’s projected fiscal year 2011 profit was positively affected by the higher prices, with the company noting in its half-year report, “Profit increased sharply because the negative impact from tuna trading in the previous year has not been carried over to this fiscal year.”
A new record of JPY 32.49 million (USD 396,000) was paid for a 342-kilogram bluefin tuna at the opening day of the Tokyo’s Tsukiji auction following the New Year’s holiday. The tuna was caught by longline and flown to the market. The most expensive domestic tunas usually come from the port of Oma in Aomori Prefecture, but this fish was landed in Toe port in Hokkaido.
The buyer of the highest-priced fish is widely mentioned in the Japanese national press, so the inflated price can be attributed mainly to PR. Kyubey, an upscale Ginza restaurant and Itamae Sushi, a Hong Kong chain, teamed to place the winning bid. In Hong Kong, the Chinese language press was generally congratulatory toward the buyer, while the English language press was critical, and social network groups were formed to boycott the chain.
