SEAFOOD.COM NEWS [BANR JAPAN REPORTS] Feb 18, 2010 - Overview of fish roe sales in Tokyo in 2009: Salted herring roe saw strong sales in the last 3 months while sales of ikura sharply recovered in December. In sales of salted fish roe in 2009 at Tokyo's three major central wholesale markets (Tsukiji, Adachi and Ohta), sales volume of pollock roe and mentai (spiced) roe, which had previously seen conspicuous price falls, showed a recovery. On the other hand, sales of sujiko (salmon roe in skein) and ikura (salmon roe), which maintained high prices from early to middle period of the year, witnessed a decline, and herring roe fell slightly short of the previous year's performance. Sales of salted herring roe in the last three months of the year registered year-on-year growth, notably with unit prices during the key sales month of December surpassing a year earlier level.
Sujiko: High prices continued due to supply shortage from the previous season until new-season North American products came to be distributed in the summer. Sales volume stayed 4.3% lower than 2008, staying at recent years' low for the second straight year. Annual sales volume nearly halved in the course of the past four years. After the sharp price fall triggered by the inflow of new-season products, prices returned to ordinary year's level, being revised downward from the high price zone that continued until the middle of the year. On a yearly basis, average sales prices dropped 4.7% from the previous year to Y2,407 per kilo. However, as compared with two years earlier, prices still represented a level 13.9% higher, maintaining the high unit prices in a continued tone from the preceding year.
Ikura: High prices persisted for nearly two years due to supply shortage. Prices came to an affordable zone after the new-season products were supplied to the market, with sales volume showing a sharp recovery in December. Annual sales volume aggregated 2,264 tons, down 6.3% from the previous year, due to supply shortage and slumping demand caused by high prices. Sales volume recovered to the previous year's point in November, when average prices plunged to the three years' low of Y3,283 per kilo. Further, in December when price bottoming-out was confirmed, monthly sales volume increased conspicuously to 475 tons, with average unit prices also turning up from November to Y3,339 per kilo.
Pollock roe: In contrast to high prices of salmon roe, sales volume of pollock roe products saw a growth helped by the lowest price zone in recent years. Annual sales volume totaled 2,595 tons, up 9.7% from 2008, while unit prices slid as large as 14.5% to Y1,656. Increased sales volume is said to have build on the lowest prices in recent years. In April-August, notably, the prices tumbled to around Y1,600 or even lower. Sales volume in December exceeded the same month of the previous year by 10.7%, although prices recovered to close to Y2,000 toward the end of the year, signaling a trend for market improvement.
Mentai roe: Like pollock roe, sales volume turned upward aided by price falls, registering a 3.2% year-on-year increase. By contrast, unit prices shrank 6.7%, ending up in a low price level after 2008 when cheap Chinese products flowed into the Japanese market in large quantities. The market was kept at a low-key tone generally, with the recovery in sales volume remaining slow in comparison to the declines in unit prices.
Salted herring roe: Annual sales volume came to 1,143 tons, up only 3.0% from the preceding year, but sales in the last three-month period in 2009 posted a 10.4% growth from the corresponding period in 2008: up 64.3% in October, up 22.7% in November and up 0.9% in December. Further, sales prices in December -- the month when half of the annual sales take place -- turned higher than a year earlier to Y2,670 per kilo, although prices in October and November stayed stagnant. On a yearly average, the prices slightly exceeded the previous year to Y2,516, maintaining the order of Y2,500 for two consecutive years due to the rise in production costs.
Flavored herring roe: Flavored herring roe also saw its sales volume grow in December, while the decline in unit prices remained minimal. On an annual basis, sales volume dwindled 6.4% to 501 tons, as sales in other months were generally on a decreasing tone. Unit prices were kept unchanged from the preceding year at Y1,292, maintaining a level in the neighborhood of Y1,300 for the second straight year because, as in the case of salted herring roe, raw material cost increased.