Japanese seafood trader exploring move into processing to counter shifting catch variability

Choshi, Japan-based seafood trader Iida Suisan, which mainly deals in sardines and mackerel, is considering a move into processing as environmental changes continue to cause catch variability.

Iida Suisan sells about 80,000 metric tons (MT) of fish per year – about half in Japan and half overseas – and the majority of its sales are bulk fish packed by other local processors. Most of its products are sourced locally, as Choshi is the country’s top fishing port by volume, and the majority of the port’s catch is made up of lower-value species like sardines, mackerel, and horse mackerel. 

Hikari Iida, who works in the company’s sales department, is the daughter of the owner and founder, Hirohiko Iida. She told SeafoodSource that her father set up his own company in 2006 after Yahachi Suisan, the Sendai-based fishery trading company he had been working at, closed.

That previous company did the packing, but the new company, Iida Suisan Sales Manager Yuki Omori told SeafoodSource, has largely been trading in frozen fish, with sardines making up the bulk of its sales. 

Iida Suisan exports container loads of frozen sardines to SE Asian countries such as Thailand, Malaysia, and Vietnam for canning as oil sardines. It also ships sardines to Australia for use as feed for farmed Southern bluefin tuna, and to South Korea for use as feed for olive flounder.

Sardine catches have increased dramatically, Iida said, possibly due to changes in the ocean environment related to climate change.

The prevalence of sardines is causing issues for fishermen, as sardines school higher up in the water column, and since the fishing nets are operated near the surface, the majority of the catch so far this year has been sardines. While mackerel are still present, they are moving...

Photo by Chris Loew/SeafoodSource