Japan is planning to ship out the bluefin tuna fish as early as November 2017, and have also considered exporting the fish to the bigger market
This is in line with the country’s initiative to protect bluefin tuna, whose population has plunged due to overfishing.
Kyokuyo Co., one of the major fisheries companies in Japan, said that it will begin in November 2017, to sell bluefin tuna to restaurant chains and shops specialising in fresh fish in department stores across the nation.
In addition to it, the company also plans to export the fish in international marketplace in near future. According to the company, the quality of the flesh of a fully farm-raised tuna compares with that of wild fish, hence with large demand in the global market.
Another Japanese fisheries company, Nippon Suisan Kaisha Ltd, further aims to start shipment of the fish for the first time by the end of 2017. The company aims to ship around 500 tonnes in the fiscal year of 2018 and 1,000 tonnes in 2019.
The bluefin tuna is completely farm-raised in waters southwest of the Shikoku region. In 2015, the country supplied about 46,000 tonnes of the species. As estimated by the Japanese government, the volume of wild bluefin tuna caught by domestic fishermen was about 8,000 tonnes.
With Japanese cuisine becoming more popular overseas, demand for bluefin tuna is increasing in the countries in the Asia-Pacific and other places. It is estimated that Japan consumes about 80 per cent of all bluefin tuna caught in the world.
With the export of farm-raised bluefin tuna, the country is expanding its footprints in the international market, highlighting the goal for mass-production, with focus on both protecting natural resources in the region as well as boosting its economy.
