Biggest global tuna market took a hit by Covid-19

The tuna market in Japan badly affected from the Covid-19 pandemic, causing restaurants and wholesalers in Toyosu fish market to adapt in order to sustain their businesses.

Despite being the world’s largest market for tuna, fishing businesses in Tokyo had hoped for more activity after Japan lifted its state of emergency in late May this year.

However, many events such as weddings and meetings had to be put on hold while many of the Japanese population are wary of going to restaurants.

The demand for fresh bluefin tuna has slumped as the pandemic wiped out orders for events.

Tuna prices dropped 8.4% in July from a year earlier, which was far steeper than the 1.5% annual fall in overall fresh fish prices, Japan’s government data showed.

According to the United Nationa Food and Agriculture Organisation, Japan’s imports of high-value tuna jumped 10% in 2019 while bluefin imports surged 13%, as businesses prepared for big events like the 2020 Olympics, which was later postponed.

In 2018, global imports of tuna were valued at US$15.7 bil (RM65.4 bil), with Japan being the biggest tuna importer of that year.

“Tokyo’s sushi restaurants, which tend to be popular among people from other regions, are getting fewer visitors from outside the capital,” Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology associate professor Toshio Katsukawa said in JapanToday’s article on Sept 8.

“If you talk with people from such shops, (they say) nobody is coming because travel to Tokyo has been cancelled,” he said. – Sept 9, 2020

 

Photo by Reuters

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