New coronavirus affecting fish trade in Japan

February 29, 2020

Tokyo--The spread of the COVID-19 novel coronavirus has been affecting fish trade in Japan, with, for example, prices of natural tuna and other high-quality fish at Tokyo's Toyosu wholesale market plunging amid falling demand from restaurants and hotels reflecting a decrease in the number of tourists.

The volume of cultured fish handled at the market in Koto Ward in the Japanese capital has also been dropping as many events have been canceled to reduce the risk of infection.

The moves by restaurants to curb purchases have led to a tumble in the prices of highest-quality domestic natural bluefin tuna. At Toyosu, wholesale prices of bluefin tuna caught off Shizuoka Prefecture, central Japan, and Nagasaki Prefecture, southwestern Japan, stood around 3,500 yen per kilogram in late February, down 30 to 40 pct from a year before.

"In February, the number of customers was down by as much as 30 pct from the year-before level" due partly to a fall in the number of tourists from abroad, said an official at a popular sushi restaurant in Tokyo's upscale Ginza district.

Prices of other luxury marine products, such as rosy seabass and sea urchin, have fallen sharply as well, also because of a plunge in purchases from abroad, including Hong Kong.

These items are now selling at prices 20 to 30 pct lower than the levels in January, when the issue of the new coronavirus was still not so serious in Japan, an official at a fish wholesaler at Toyosu said.

Trading volume has been declining since mid-February for sillago for tempura, following cases of infection among people aboard a "yakatabune" roofed pleasure boat, and for cultured red seabream and flounder, which are often used for parties held at hotels.

Shipments of striped marlin, a seasonal delicacy, to Toyosu started to increase in early February.

But an official in charge of auction at Toyosu said, "We're having difficulties finding buyers although most of this year's striped marlin is of high quality." Jiji Press