Also known as pike mackerel, or “sanma” in Japanese, Pacific saury is an autumn staple. The stock comes into Japanese waters from the north in late August and early September as water temperatures cool and by December works its way down to Chiba Prefecture, just north of Tokyo.
In a survey of which foods come to mind as “tastes of autumn” by Tokyo-based restaurant search website GourNavi, Pacific saury came out on top. The site polled 1,024 Japanese men and women over 20 years old, and multiple selections were allowed. Saury was selected as a familiar autumn taste by 82.9 percent of respondents, followed by chestnuts (71.4 percent) and matsutake mushrooms (68.8 percent). Saury was in first place among both males and females.
When asked which items they would eat in restaurants, and which items they would at home, mushrooms and ginko nuts beat saury in the dining-out category, followed by salmon roe and skipjack tuna. Saury took first place for at-home dining, followed by salmon, pumpkin and sweet potato. Reasonable price was a major reason for the “at home” selections.
This year, the price is particularly reasonable.
“There’s a lot of sanma coming in from Nemuro, so prices are falling,” said Shohei Kamiji of Kamiji Shoten, a seafood processor located near the Osaka Central Wholesale Market. “Usually supermarkets sell at 100 yen per fish, but this year, 90 yen.” One saury runs about 150 grams and serves one person.
A national record for daily landings was reached on 24 September at 5,046 metric tons (MT), with 2,281 MT of that from the port of Hanasakiminato-Nemuro. The fish were reported as fatty, but smaller than last year. Other ports in northeast Japan are getting a share of the processing action too, but regardless of the port of landing, the actual fishing activity so far has been in waters off Nemuro, Hokkaido. In that town, local shops have been giving away smaller, less marketable fish for free to draw in customers.
Processing plants in the tsunami-damaged port town of Kesennuma could not keep up with the catch and local fishermen in late September voluntarily limited fishing effort. According to the local fishery cooperative, the port in Miyagi Prefecture handled the second-largest amount of saury in the nation before the quake, but dropped to eighth last year due to delays in restoring refrigeration plants and other facilities.
What to do with too much fish? Two-thousand charcoal-grilled saury were given away at a September Yamagata City event sponsored by the Kesennuma branch of JA, the Japanese agricultural and fisheries cooperative association. The event in Yamagata and a similar event in Tokyo played up solidarity with disaster-hit Kesennuma while promoting sanma consumption.
Early season auction prices in Kesennuma on 4 September ran around 250 yen per kilogram, but declined sharply with strong catches.
The port of Onohama Iwaki in Fukushima Prefecture received saury vessels for the first time since the earthquake on 28 September. Though local waters are still closed due to radioactivity, ships based there are bringing in hauls from off Nemuro. On that day, saury was sold at the adjacent market at JPY 180-209 per kilogram.
As a market glut has become apparent, the wholesale bid price of saury (excluding specially selected premium fish) as of 10 October has dropped to JPY 95 per kilogram.
Japan has the largest Pacific saury fishery in the world and exports mainly to South Korea. Taiwan is second, and has about 90 squid jigging boats operating off Argentina that return home each fall to fish saury. According to the Taiwan Squid Fishery Association, Japan’s saury catch was between 300,000 to 400,000 MT in 2010, before capacity was reduced by the 2011 tsunami, while Taiwan’s was 160,000 MT.
Post-disaster, Japan’s exports were slashed by 80 percent, to 13,000 MT, while imports from Taiwan covered shortfalls before the season started. The strong Japan catches this year indicate that Japan may resume its role as a major exporter.
