December 28, 2007

 

Japan develops rare grouper into a specialty food

 

 

Kue, or kelp grouper, is becoming a local delectable in Kansai, thanks to the effort of Fisheries Laboratory of Kinki University in Shirahamacho, Wakayama Prefecture, which cultivated the prized fish.

 

Kue is a quality white fish that grows to about 1 metre, and is usually served as sashimi or in a stew. In Japan, it has been called a "legendary" fish because it is scarce.

 

Hotels are already promoting cultivated kue in November as a local specialty. Immediately after the hotels received their first shipment from the fishery, West Japan Railway Co. and JTB Corp. added their backing to the campaign--JTB has been promoting package tours that include meals featuring the cultivated fish.

 

The most obvious benefit of cultivated kue is that visitors to Shirahamacho can now enjoy eating it year-round without reservations at reasonable price.

 

Generally, people tend to prefer the taste of wild fish, and many dislike cultivated fish, according to Taka-michi Katada, secretary general of the Ryokan Cooperative Society of Shirahama Spa. But cultivated kue tastes better [than wild kue], especially when served as sashimi, he said. 

 

No statistics are available on the annual catch of kue, as the haul is so small. According to Shirahamacho's fisheries cooperative association, the town's fishermen catch fewer than 20 kue each year. 

 

The wholesale price for wild kue is about 10,000 yen per kilogramme but diners can enjoy the fish because the hotels and inns get cultivated kue from the laboratory at a reasonable price. 

 

Before cultivated kue became available, hopeful diners were required to make reservations well in advance, and restaurants were often forced to cancel reservations due to the fish's scarcity. 

 

For 20 years Kinki University has been researching kue cultivation, which had always been seen as a difficult commercial prospect.

 

Osamu Murata, professor and vice director of the laboratory, explains kue is difficult to cultivate because the fry are weak and particularly sensitive to water temperature. After much trial and error, the university fishery succeeded in raising kue adults in 2000, but they were too small, and the meat was too soft and not up to the commercial standard. 

 

These problems were solved by taking the kue to the warm seawater in Amami Island, Kagoshima Prefecture.

 

For the first six to seven months after hatching, young kue are raised at the university's Shirahamacho farm before being transferred to Amami island, where they grow for three years before being transferred back. In this way, the kue can grow to 50 to 70 centimeters and three to five kilograms, big enough to sell and the two-farm technique has also improved the fish's flavour.

 

The acid test for kue came at a tasting event at the end of 2006 when the Ryokan Cooperative Society of Shirahama Spa gave high marks to the improved cultivated kue, and decided to promote the farm-raised fish as the town's specialty. 

 

The fishery first started shipping small amounts of the fish two years ago, receiving orders by mail and on the Internet. Already it has grown enough that it can ship 5,000 kue annually--and most of these are sold to local hotels. 

 

Thus, the Shirama spa has already received numerous orders and Morata hopes to improve output by 20,000 per year.