Japan’s Fisheries Agency recently released its annual Fisheries Whitepaper examining the country’s seafood trends in 2021 – while also setting new policies for 2022.
The whitepaper covers a huge range of data on the seafood industry in Japan from 2021, and also includes new data from 2020 that was previously unavailable.
The whitepaper shows that per-capita consumption of seafood in Japan has dropped over the past two decades. In 2001, per-capita consumption was 40.2 kilograms, but it has since steadily has declined – falling below per-capita consumption of meat in 2011. In 2020, per-capita consumption fell to 23.4 kilograms, which the whitepaper attributes to consumers being deterred from buying seafood by high prices and the labor involved in cooking.
The whitepaper found that ecolabels popular in Japan are the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC), and Marine Eco-Label (MEL). By the end of March 2022, MSC had certified 12 fisheries in Japan – two more than the previous year – for scallops, bonito, albacore tuna, and oysters. The paper found that 313 business operators have obtained Chain of Custody (CoC) certifications, 13 more than previously. ASC has certified 14 aquaculture businesses operating 81 farm sites, for oysters, yellowtail, and Japanese amberjack; along with 164 CoC certs for an increase of 1 and 13, respectively.
The MEL – a Japanese certification that was granted Global Sustainable Seafood Initiative recognition in 2019 – has certified 14 fisheries covering sockeye salmon, mackerel, and shijimi clams; as well as 53 aquaculture business covering Japanese amberjack, yellowtail, sea bream, coho salmon, and yellowtail amberjack. This represents an increase of 7 and 12, respectively. The standard’s CoC certifications grew by 42, to 100. Overall, the MEL has seen more rapid growth than MSC in Japan.
Imports of marine products were down 2.3 percent in volume from the previous year, but up 10 percent in value. The highest import values, in order of share, were for salmon and trout at 13.4 percent, bonito and other tuna at 11.6 percent, shrimp at 11.1 percent, processed shrimp products at 4.5 percent, crab at 3.6 percent, cod at 3 percent, and squid at 2.9 percent. The relative percentages have not changed much in the last several years, even under the influence of COVID-19.