As Japan’s biggest day for eel consumption approaches, high prices are spoiling demand.
Ushi-no-doyo-no-hi, or “Ox day of the change of season,” is to eel consumption what Thanksgiving is to turkey. The Japanese custom of eating eel at the change of the season is credited an Edo-era eel shop. Doyo refers to the 18 days before a change of season. The days are named with the 12 signs of the zodiac and so one (and sometimes two) of the days is given the name “ushi” (ox). Enjoying alliteration, the Japanese like to eat a food that begins with a U (for ushi) on this day. Thus, unagi (sea eel) fits the bill. In addition, because it is high in vitamin B, eel is claimed to help fight heat exhaustion. This year the day falls on 27 July.
The most popular unagi dish is kabayaki-don: roasted eel on rice with teriyaki sauce. But as this year’s price increases have been announced, demand has plummeted.
Unagi are river eels; they mate at sea and the elvers return to rivers to mature. Anago, on the other hand, are sea eels that live their whole lives in salt water. Poor catches of river eel fry (elvers or glass eels) for three years in a row have driven prices way up.
According to the Tokyo Central Wholesale Market, the wholesale price of river eel on 11 June at Tsukiji was in the range of JPY 3,518 to 4,253 per kilogram, 33 percent higher than the same period last year and 56 percent higher than two years ago. Prices were highest in April, but eased a bit in the first weeks of June due to an expected increase in Chinese supply and because of the reduced demand.
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) puts total production of Japanese eel at around 250,000 metric tons (MT), up about 50,000 MT from 2005; 40 percent of Japanese supply is domestic, with the rest mainly from China and Korea. Taishan in Guangdong is China’s largest eel farming area. There is an order of preference among eel species for the Japanese market: Anguilla japonica (Japanese eel), then Anguilla rotrata (American eel) and lastly Anguilla anguilla (European eel).
China sources elvers from the state of Maine. High demand drove elver prices sky-high last year prompting a “gold rush.” Feeding the shortage is a European ban on elver harvesting. Chinese buyers turned temporarily to the Philippines, but a ban was imposed in May to halt rampant overfishing.
In Japan, specialty shops have been hit hardest. They have had to raise prices sharply, as they must profit on the dish to survive. Consumption at such shops has fallen by 30 to 40 percent year-on-year. A federation of about 250 eel specialty shops has appealed to producers to cut prices. If the kabayaki shops go belly up, eel producers will lose their future business.
At supermarkets, sales were off 50 percent. Some are offering substitutes, such as the thinner sea eel (anago), the thicker Australian eel or saury, a fish that tastes quite different but has a similar long shape. For the time being, supermarket prices will stay at about JPY 1,500 per broiled eel tail.
Other sales channels are using moderate price increases to lure in customers to drive up store traffic and related sales. Popular beef rice bowl restaurant Yoshinoya on 11 June introduced its seasonal menu; it raised the price of its “eel bowl” by JPY 100 from last year. Yoshinoya uses Chinese farmed eel. The new price is JPY 650, while competitor Sukiya is selling at JPY 780.
Convenience stores Lawson and FamilyMart both raised their price per eel tail by 300 yen, from JPY 1,680 yen to JPY 1,980. Convenience stores, including Circle K and 7-11, will use unagi to draw customers and sell related seasonal foods.
