Technology reels in fish traders

TOKYO - After midnight in Tokyo, restaurants in the Ginza entertainment district spill revellers full of sushi that sells for as much as $675 a plate on to the streets. Seven blocks away, the Tsukiji fish market, source of much of what they've eaten, is just starting to stir to life.

Tsukiji is the world's largest fish market. In the wee hours, stevedores hoist tuna from boats and trucks on to carts and race through the market's narrow alleyways to the auction houses, where the tuna will be sorted according to quality and provenance. Some of the fish were alive only hours before.

"A good tuna is like a sumo wrestler," says Shiro Kamoshita, 61, who represents the third generation in his family to work at Tsukiji as an intermediate wholesaler.

"A sumo wrestler eats plenty, but because he exercises, the fat is smooth and has lots of muscle. It's the same for a tuna."

But Kamoshita's way of life is under threat. Nowadays the large supermarkets that sell much of Japan's fish are bypassing auctions and buying direct from importers.

Statistics from Tsukiji's owner, the Tokyo city administration, show that in the decade to April 2002 the amount of seafood being traded through markets declined by a fifth.

And the fish Kamoshita and his colleagues are buying are no longer caught exclusively in the waters off the Japanese coast. Instead, more than half comes from sellers as far away as Port Lincoln, Australia, and Gloucester, Massachusetts.

Foreign fishermen have been eager to cash in on Japan's demand for high-quality tuna, which has been surging since the late 1970s. In 2003, Japan imported $18 billion of fishery commodities, more than any other country. It also consumes about a third of the world's annual production of tuna, or about 630,000 tonnes.

That's 5kg a person per year. Most of it is top-quality, sashimi-grade tuna, not the kind sold in cans in most of the rest of the world.

Until recently, almost all of it was sold in fish markets such as Tsukiji, which began daily auctions of tuna, shrimp and sea urchin in the 1930s.

Now, Tsukiji accounts for just 11 per cent of the total sales of tuna.

Aeon, Japan's largest retailer, with 300 stores, buys only farmed tuna direct from importers because it allows for better planning and helps to reduce costs.

Japanese families, in which more women are working than in the past, have less time to shop for fresh fish and prefer the convenience of processed seafood.

The value of fish sold in Tsukiji dropped 15 per cent to $6.5 billion in 2003 from $7.6 billion in 1999.

A Tokyo administration spokesman says the fall in sales is continuing.

"This is the case for all markets in Japan," he says. "The volume and value of the products handled are declining fast."

There are four main types of tuna: northern bluefin, southern bluefin, bigeye and yellowfin, all of which are seasonal.

The northern bluefin, found in the Atlantic and Mediterranean, tends to fetch the highest prices. The most expensive meat is otoro, the fattiest part of the tuna belly, found below the pectoral fin.

Ryozo Moriwaka, in charge of the auctions for wholesale company Tsukiji Uoichiba, says a good auctioneer can get buyers to bid up the price of a tuna as much as 10 per cent. Moriwaka is almost constantly on the phone keeping track of supply and demand for tuna.

He has about 600 numbers in his cellphone, including suppliers, trading company officials, brokers, fishermen and customers as far away as the United States.

The flow of information about market demand and prices is important to fishermen thousands of kilometres away hoping to get the best prices for their catches at Tsukiji.

A northern bluefin tuna, famed for its fat-marbled flesh, reeled in off the coast of Massachusetts can reach Tsukiji in as little as 48 hours.

The delicate balance between supply and demand for the fish may be easier to manage in future thanks to fishermen such as Hagen Stehr, based at Port Lincoln in Australia.

German-born Stehr, 60, runs a tuna farm and was initially part of a group helped by Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in a bid to create stable tuna prices.

The Stehr Group catches southern bluefin tuna when they are 3 or 4 years old and weigh about 15kg. Then they keep the fish in cages for six or seven months.

When the fish grow to about 35 to 40kg, they are slaughtered and sold.

Tuna farm fishing has also taken off in Mediterranean countries such as Italy, Libya, Spain and Tunisia. About 70 per cent of tuna exported to Japan from the region is farmed.

But the globalisation of tuna supply means an uncertain future for wholesalers. As the volume of fish sold in Tsukiji declines, the Tokyo administration has less justification for maintaining it on land next to Japan's most expensive real estate. It plans to sell the land and move the market across the Sumida River to Toyosu by 2012.

Price of fish

Tsukiji is the world's largest fish market.

It began daily auctions in the 1930s.

Japan imports $18 billion of fishery commodities, more than any other country.

It also consumes about a third of the world's total production of tuna each year, or about 630,000 tonnes.

- BLOOMBERG