Japan’s recently released Fishery White Paper for the 2023 fiscal year showed that per-capita seafood consumption in the country continues to drop, leading Japanese seafood producers to turn toward exports as the domestic market becomes ever more unreliable.
The fiscal year 2023 report highlights that per-capita consumption of edible fish and shellfish sank to a new low of 22 kilograms; nearly half of the 40.2 kilograms per-capita consumed in 2001.
Consumption of meat in Japan first surpassed that of seafood in 2011 and has consistently risen year over year since. Seafood’s decline has been steep, and correlates with a rise in consumer price index, signaling it is not only the Westernization of diets behind a reduction in seafood consumption but also its higher cost.
Backing that up, the report emphasizes that price inflation from 2022 to 2023 was particularly high for seafood at 9 percent, mainly due to depreciation of the yen and a rebound in demand after Covid-19 related restrictions were lifted. Using 2019 as a baseline, fresh seafood prices rose 40 percent by 2023, much more than the increase for fresh meat (23 percent), prepared foods (19 percent), and all food products (18 percent).
The white paper listed which seafood species were most popular in 2023 by per-capita purchase volumes.
Salmon has held the top position in Japan firmly since 2004. Tuna is now in the second spot, displacing squid, which has fallen over the past few decades as catches have dwindled and prices have risen …
