Big leap for Russian frozen fish exports to Japan
In the first four months of 2021, Russia has steeply increased exports of agricultural products to Japan with the greatest input provided by frozen seafood, reports Megafishnet.com.
According to Agroexport, the shipments of frozen fish jumped 3.2 times to 9.9 thousand metric tons in physical terms and 3.8 times to $ 42 million in value. The bulk of this volume came from frozen sockeye salmon, which fetched $ 36 million, while last year its deliveries were only worth $ 1.4 million. In addition, Russia increased supplies of herring ($2.9 million, 6.3 times up) and frozen cod ($1.8 million, +32%).
The second place in the structure of sales at the beginning of this year was corn.
In the third position came crustaceans with more than 1 thousand metric tons (-26%) valued at $ 11 million (-20%). About 82% of the cost volume was accounted for by shrimps, the rest was represented by crabs. Sea urchin exports increased by 5.6% to 3.3 thousand tons in volume and by 9.4% to $ 10 million in cash. Japan comes second in terms of imports from Russia of fresh and chilled crabs, chilled and frozen shrimps, and is also traditionally the main buyer of sea urchins.
In addition, one should note an increase of Russian export of frozen cuttlefish and squid (46 times up to $ 2.6 million.) and the resumption of exports of fish fillets (329 thousand dollars).
Japan is one of the leading world powers, which ranks 11th in the world in terms of population and the 3rd largest GDP after the United States and China.
At the same time, Japan is one of the largest fishing states in the world and one of the leading consumers of seafood. According to the Japan Fisheries Agency, in 2019, the average per capita consumption of fish and seafood was 23.9 kg, and the Government is making efforts to increase consumption through various marketing campaigns, such as the "Fast Fish" program – promoting the consumption of easy-to-prepare fish products.
According to the ITC Trade Map, Japan imported $ 70 billion worth of food products in 2020. The range of products purchased by the country abroad is diverse, the largest positions are pork ($4.4 billion), corn ($3.3 billion), fish fillets ($3.1 billion), ready-made or canned meat products ($3.1 billion), industrial tobacco substitutes ($3 billion), frozen fish ($2.7 billion), cigarettes and cigars ($2.2 billion), crustaceans ($2 billion).
The leading suppliers of agricultural products to the Japanese market in 2020 were the United States (20%), China (12%) and Canada (6%). Russia ranked 17th with a 1.4% share.
According to the Federal Center "Agroexport", by 2030, Russia has the potential to increase the supply of agricultural products to Japan to 2.5-2.8 billion dollars. In particular, frozen fish and fish fillets, crustaceans, cereals (corn, wheat, barley), ready – made and canned meat products, and, if access is granted, poultry and pork also have prospects for further growth.