News
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Cabinet has recently approved an annual white paper on fisheries for fiscal 2014 (April 2014-March 2015). According to the Fishery Basic Act, the government every year compiles a paper on fisheries in Japan, which contains trends, policies and other relevant issues, and submits it to the Diet.
According to the white paper, Japan imported 2.54 million tons of fishery products (on a product weight basis) in fiscal 2014, which went up 2% from a year earlier. They were valued at \1.657 trillion, up 5%. Meanwhile, exported fishery products totaled 470,000 tons in volume, down 15%, and \233.7 billion in value, up 5%.
Looking at the value of imports closely by item, the top five were shrimps and prawns; bonito and tuna; salmon and trout; crabs and pollack. The five groups accounted for some 40% of the pie in total. By origin, imports from China enjoyed the largest share of approximately 20%.
As for exports, salmon and trout grew notably both in volume and value, surging 15% and 37%, respectively. By destination, those to Hong Kong accounted for about 30% of the total value, being higher than any other commodity.
