Snow crab is in season, but prices at the Tsukiji wholesale market in early December were 30 to 50 percent higher than last year, as rough weather in the Sea of Japan has reduced landings.
Mature male snow crab landed on the San-in coast of Japan (Southwest Honshu Island from Yamaguchi to Hyogo prefectures) is branded as “Matsuba-gani” and fetches a high price due to its full meat, about JPY 10,000 (about USD 97, EUR 70) per kilogram (kg) at Tsukiji in Tokyo. “Echizen crabs,” as snow crabs are branded along the shores of northern Fukui and Ishikawa prefectures, are a popular competitor. The female counterpart to the Matsuba-gani is the Seko-gani. Smaller and cheaper, they have abundant eggs and flavorful green guts, called “kanimiso.” A common cooking style is to heat the kanimiso in the carapace on a hibachi charcoal burner and use them as a dipping sauce for the crabmeat.
The domestic season began 6 November, but early season catches were off by 40 to 50 percent from the same period last year at the port of Kasumi in Hyogo Prefecture and sizes trended small. Some processors were rushing to buy females for frozen ingredients because the season was shortened, expected to end by the end of December.
The supply of poached Russian snow crab has been greatly reduced this fall and winter, with frozen imports down 70 percent in October year-on-year. The yearly import figure looks to top 2012, but this is because of illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) imports early in the year. Between new certificate of origin requirements and increased Russian enforcement, that trade has been much restricted.
The United States is also competing more strongly for snow crab this year, taking larger-than-usual quantities of both Canadian and Russian product. American restaurants are offering snow crab dishes in place of shrimp, which is very high-priced due to disease in Southeast Asia. Thus, the scarcity of snows in Japan is likely to continue.
Though king crab is always higher priced than snow, a narrowing gap is leading the Japanese market to favor kings this year.
Though deliveries of processed king crab to Japan from Russia dropped in September to less than a tenth of that seen in 2012, imports for the year are up, as large quantities of IUU product came in early in the year to beat new documentation rules. An increase in quota of red king crab in the Russian Far East for 2013 should further boost Japan’s imports of Russian kings.
Japan also bought about 60 percent of Alaska Bering Sea red king crab. As inventories are said to be high for kings, we should see reasonable prices, in contrast to the snow crab. The trend in Japan is toward more kings and fewer snows.
Both snow crab (zuwaigani) and king crab (tarabagani) are eaten during Japan’s New Year holidays and throughout the winter, especially in the Kansai region, which includes Osaka. They are mostly eaten as “kani-nabe,” a crab hotpot with Napa cabbage and other vegetables.
