Female chum salmon from Hokkaido are fetching a landed price of 605 yen (USD 5.58, EUR 4.34) per kilogram (kg), while males are selling between 320 and 350 (USD 2.95-3.22, EUR 2.29-2.51) yen. Females sell higher have higher value for the eggs (ikura).
Chum salmon are caught in Japan from 30 August to early October. The early season harvest has been 40 percent above the volumes of the same time last year and there are now about 2,500 metric tons in cold storage, pushing down the landed price of females from last year’s high of 650 yen per kg. Still, fishers are pleased that the females have now reached 600 yen for three years in a row.
The price of males has been supported by the high price of silver salmon. Silvers have been in strong demand due to lower Chilean production. Frozen Chilean silver salmon fillets sold at Tokyo’s Tsukiji auction in the second week of September at between 918 and 972 yen (USD 8.41-8.90, EUR 6.60-6.99) per kg. Chile stocked fewer silver salmon following a glut and price collapse in the 2012/2013 season, resulting in an approximately 30 percent drop in production volumes in the first quarter of this year.
For a dressed comparison, chum is often sold as fillets cut into three sections. These are selling at Tsukiji at 700 to 800 yen (USD 6.41-7.32, EUR 5.04-5.76) per kg and are in turn sold in supermarkets at around 198 yen per 100 grams.
The pink salmon season also opened in northern Hokkaido in mid-September, but the harvest was estimated at 4-5 million, down from a peak of 11 million fish in 2009, when it was said that the fish were almost too cheap to bother catching. The season was shortened to preserve the wild run and most of the pink harvest will come as bycatch in set nets directed at chum. Landed prices were accordingly high at 402-406 yen per kg (USD 3.68-3.72, EUR 2.89-2.92), up sharply from around 250 yen in an average year. Russian imports, much of it from Japanese-claimed islands in the Kuril chain, make up a large share of commercially processed products, such as breaded fillets, nuggets and patties.
Pink salmon are important mainly in the northernmost areas of Hokkaido, while chum have the widest range of any salmonid and a greater tolerance to varied climates. In Japan, chum run as far south as Kyushu on the Japan Sea side of the islands, and down below Tokyo in the south, though Hokkaido also makes up the bulk of the commercial catch for chum. As an indication of climate change, in the Nemuro Strait winter yellowtail (kanburi) is being caught in set nets for chum salmon. Yellowtail usually run south on the Japan Sea side of Honshu Island in fall as waters cool, but are still in the straight at this late date.
