N.Z. launches tuna industry but Japanese suspicious

Press, 4 December 1981, Page 13

N.Z. launches tuna industry but Japanese suspicious

From

BRUCE ROSCOE

in Tokyo

This year's New Zealandcaught tuna sale to Japan marks the first stage of the development of a multimillion dollar industry. In August, 1979, for the first time, one sample southern blue-fin tuna, which had been' caught off the West Coast, was packed in a coffin of ice and airfreighted from Christchurch to Tokyo where it fetched $l5OO. Last year, a little over five tonnes of New Zealandcaught tuna were shipped frozen to Japan for a freight, insurance, and customs paid price of about $B3OO. This year, however, the first major tuna-catching operation was conducted off the West Coast from May to August, and the catch of 174 tonnes, shipped on the Hochin No. 1, a Taiwanese carrier, from Nelson and arriving at the Japanese fishing port of Misaki in October, has brought a return for New Zealand of about $1,427 million, or an average of $697 a fish. According to Japanese tuna industry sources, the New Zealand Fishing Industry Board and the New Zealand firm which bought the catch from local fishermen, are elated at the results of the investment. They had at first expected a loss of about $lOO,OOO, but the cost of catching and freighting this year's catch to Japan was estimated at about $1,126 million, leaving a profit of $301,319. That is enough, the New Zealand industry appears to believe, to warrant chartering two tuna vessels for next year’s season. The Federation of Japan Tuna Fisheries Co-operatives Associations, which owns, finances, and controls the entire Japanese tuna fleet of about 980 vessels, has been indirectly approached by the N.Z.F.1.8., the Japanese tuna sources say, for a possible lease of the vessels. The overly smooth sale of this year’s catch, and the method by which it was sold,

however, presents an enigma. To some Japanese industry sources, the sale representa a flaboyantly successful breakthrough into the Japanese market; to others, almost every aspect of the deal breaks the standard code of Japanese tuna operations and therefore ought to be regarded with suspicion. Prices for Japanese-caught tuna in nearly all cases are decided long before the tuna boats come home. Boat captains radio back information such as the gradings the crew have given the catch, the record of the locations where the tuna were caught, the hook rate, and the temperature of the various fishing grounds the boat worked,

for as many as 20 months at sea. This knowledge, together with a consideration of the reputation of the boat’s captain and the history of the boat, enables the buyers to decide what prices they will pay. But the Hochin No. 1 has no history or reputation; it is an unnamed vessel on Japanese lists, a boat of unknown quality to Japanese buyers. It also has no record of the details of the catch because it was not fishing. Local fishermen sold their freshly caught tuna to the Hochin No. 1 at sea.

There was considerable surprise, therefore, in the Japanese industry when the New Zealand concern asked a price of about $7.90 per kilogram but was paid the higner price of about $8.15. Japanese-caught tuna are auctioned by radio at sea. The auction's, or “issengai,” are often multiple, such is the extent catches change hands, each buyer taking a margin of one of less per cent, before the fish are landed. And once landed, a complex four-to-five-stage distri-

bution channel assures that the tuna will again change hands that many times. The marketing is often termed notorious because what you see is not always what you get. Fish packed as New Zealand tuna at one market, for instance, may quickly be repacked into Japanese-style boxes for resale as Japanese-caught tuna at another market. The ostensibly Japanese-caught tuna, of course, command the higher price. Such is believed to occur frequently to shipments of New Zealand snapper. This year's catch was bought by the Japanese trading house Marubeni, which promptly resold it to a Japanese fishing firm which

for reasons of its own does not wish to be identified as the purchaser. Private, Tokyo-based market research sources, who studied the pricing of the New Zealand catch, point out that cases of Japanese buyers paying more than the seller asks spell out a warning of false encouragement. According to this theory, unexpectedly high prices are paid for a first shipment to lure the seller into boosting the volume of the next catch as much as possible. The fall comes when market prices are said to have mysteriously plummeted just as the bigger volumes reach the market. Canadian shrimp sellers are experiencing this now. It happened to New Zealand snapper in 1977. It has happened to New Zealand squid. But tuna is a far more expensive commodity and there is neither an alternative market for the fish as a delicacy nor the costly sophisticated freezing equipment needed for low-tem-perature storage: the seller must accept the prices of the moment, and all of the many chains of Japanese buyers will stand to profit. If New Zealand can exert little influence over market manipulation such as this, it can bring increased returns by improved catching techniques. Only seven per cent of this year’s catch was graded “A.” Thirty-three per cent was graded “B” and sixty per cent “C.” With informed instruction on handling techniques, this grading may greatly improve, but if the present method.of fishing continues, with fishermen transferring their catches to carriers for freezing, quality will inevitably be lost. Japanese tuna boats gut, clean, bleed, and freeze their catches on board as soon as they are landed. An even slightly damaged fish, or one which has “overheated” itself, resulting in a change of colour, brings prices down to rock bottom.