October 17, 2013

Japan's August seafood imports down 12.3% on-year

In August 2013, Japan's frozen yellowfin imports plummeted by 44% compared to the same period of 2012 with its volume dropped from 4,026 tonnes to just 2,228 tonnes for the same month year on-year.

Japan's imports of bigeye tuna followed a similar trend, with a 29% fall for frozen bigeye when comparing August numbers for 2012 and 2013. Fresh bigeye imports also took a hit, declining 27% from 2,117 tonnes to 1,525 tonnes.

Fuelled by the drastic decline in the imports of these two tuna species, Japan's seafood imports as a whole dropped by 12.3% from August 2012 to August 2013.

Yellowfin and bigeye tuna are important products for the lucrative Japanese sushi market. The tuna is often hyper-frozen instantly to temperatures as low as -16 degrees Celsius to preserve the freshness of the tuna. In August 2012, Japan imported as much as 14,774 tonnes of frozen bigeye. This figure dropped to 10,487 tonnes in August this year.

Concerns surrounding the stock status of both bigeye and yellowfin have grown due to high by-catch numbers of juvenile tuna caught from fishing on Fish Aggregating Devices (FADs). The Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) has made strong efforts to reduce the amount of fishing on FADs by tuna fleets fishing in the Pacific Ocean.

A whole 50% of the world's canned tuna is caught using FADs by vessels catching skipjack. The by-catch of juvenile bigeye tuna from this activity in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean was just less than 80,000 tonnes in 2010, and has risen severely from around 3,000 tonnes before the beginning of the FAD boom in 1980.

Declining stock levels of these tuna species can affect the ability for tuna fleets to catch adult yellowfin and bigeye, leaving less catch available for global exportation.