Tuna Market Variation Of Japan And Its’Distribution System

For a long time, tuna, as a kind of aquatic resource with high-nutrition and high-value,is very popular all over the world. Tuna fisheries begin in1950s, and the catches increasedfrom390thousand tones (1950) to4520thousand tones(2005),with the increase of morethan10times. In2010, the principal market tuna species has taken a percentage of66ofthe total catches of tuna and tuna-like specious. Most catches of the principal market tunaspecies are taken from the Pacific (70.5%of the total catch of principal market tuna speciesin2008), with the Indian contributing much more (19.5%in2010) than the Atlantic andthe Mediterranean Sea (10.0%in2010).Recently, the principal market tuna catches of Japan and Taiwan Province of Chinabecome largest among all the districts. Other important tuna fishing countries includeIndonesia, the Philippines, Spain, Republic of Korea, and so on. Tuna farming started inthe1990s. Bluefin tunas are the main species used in farming. The countries involvedinclude Australia, Japan, Mexico and several Mediterranean countries (particularly Croatia,Italy, Malta, Morocco, Spain and Turkey).Japan has a long history of seafood consumption, and tuna is also very popular inJapan. The tuna fisheries were started in ancient period using pole and line. With time past,longline and purse seine appeared. The changes of tuna catches in Japan can be dividedinto two periods. The first one is from1956to1970, and the catches increased firstly andthen decreased. The first one is from1970to now. It increased slowly until1985, andthen begins to decrease. From1970to2012, it decreased by47%.The import of Japanstarted to increase between1980s and1990s.The import countries of frozen tuna areTaiwan, South Korea and China, while the main import countries of fresh tuna areIndonesia, Taiwan and Australia.In the distribution system, the Japan Fisheries cooperative and wholesale markets arevery important. The distribution system can be divided into two types: market distributionsystem and direct distribution system. Among the direct distribution system, “whole-ship-lots” is an important part. It means that the companies buy all the catchesfrom the vessels without through the market distribution system and then sell the catches tovolume sellers or retail shops. Recent years, the percentage of “whole-vessel-trade”decreased while the market distribution system increased, mainly due to the shrink of tunamarket.Tuna fishing operations in China started for a short time. The distribution system inour country is almost the same as the market distribution system in Japan. Compared withthe distribution system, the distribution system in China are still insufficient in manyrespects. So we can learn from the Japanese development model and improve ourdistribution system.