Economy News from the fish market

While China keeps boycotting Japanese seafood, elsewhere, in particular Thailand, Japanese fish is booming. And with Russian imports flooding the Japanese market, crab meat prices are tanking.

Uoriki, a Japanese retail and wholesale company dealing in fresh fish and sushi, on 30 October opened a store in a large Lotus's supermarket in Bangkok. Sea urchin, scallop sashimi, assorted sushi, fresh kinmedai (alfonsino) and tachiuo (large-head hairtail) attracted shopper attention. The company operates four stores in Thailand, including in Chiang Mai. At the main store in Bangkok, a Japanese staff member working on a regular basis cuts fish shipped by air from Japan. He also teaches local staff how to cut fish. [...] The CP conglomerate expects to open 10 stores next year and 100 within five years, according to Uoriki.

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Japanese marine product exports to Thailand amounted to 23.5 billion JPY (USD158 million) in 2022, up 14.6% from the previous year, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. The value was only 27% of Japan's marine product exports to China. It was also less than the value of exports to the U.S. and Taiwan. Thais have demonstrated a growing affinity for Japanese foods for the past couple of decades. Thailand had 5,325 Japanese restaurants in 2022, a sharp increase from 745 in 2007, according to the Bangkok office of JETRO, Japan's trade promotion organization.

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The cost of crab meat - considered a winter delicacy - has dropped dramatically in Japan due to a surge in Russian imports that have been shut out from other markets due to sanctions. Imports account for the majority of the crab meat consumed in Japan. Russian-caught snow crabs now fetch about 2,000 JPY (USD14) per kilogram in the wholesale market, down 33% from 2022's average.

Canadian crab meat now sells for 1,800 JPY per kilogram, while Norwegian product costs 1,900, dropping 32% and 51% from last year's average prices. Russian-sourced red king crab sells for around 5,000 JPY per kilogram, a 38% discount from 2022's average. The sharp decline in prices can be traced to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Japan raised tariffs on Russian seafood in April 2022 as part of sanctions against Moscow. But Russian seafood does not face a wholesale import ban like vodka and timber products. Adding Russian crab to the blacklist "would have a large impact on Japan's seafood processing industry," said a representative at Japan's Fisheries Agency.

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Apparently, Japan maintains healthy seafood ties with Russia:

With the U.S. cut off, Russian crab meat started being diverted to Japan and other Asian markets. In 2022, crab imports rose 11% to 74.9 billion JPY ($508 million). Of this, Russian imports in particular jumped 28% to 48.5 billion JPY, despite higher tariffs. Russian product expanded its share of imported crab to 64.8% in 2022. The trend is continuing this year. Japan imported 35.8 billion JPY worth of crab in the first three quarters, with 24.6 billion JPY originating from Russia. Russia's share of crab imports during that period expanded further to 68.8%.

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Japanese-caught crab remains more of a luxury. The wholesale price for Japanese snow crab is now around 15,000 yen to 16,000 yen per kilogram, about 20% higher than it was last year. "Consumers see domestic-caught crab as different product from imported crab, so we're not seeing competition between them," a source familiar with the market said.

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I was in the tendon chain Tenya yesterday, and the restaurant was promoting crab meat quite heavily - Russian crab meat I assume.

Y2000/kg! Wow. I know if I were in Japan, I'd be looking for some カニ食べ放題 places right about now.