Market
By far the largest consumer of SBT is Japan, with USA coming in second, followed by China. Japanese imports of fresh bluefin tuna (all 3 species) worldwide increased from 957 tons in 1984 to 5,235 tons in 1993 . The price peaked in 1990 at $34 per kilogram when a typical 350 pound fish sold for around $10,000. As of 2008, bluefin was selling for $23 a kilogram. The drop in value was due to the drop in the Japanese market, an increase in supply from northern bluefin tuna from the Mediterranean, and more and more tuna being stored (tuna frozen with the special "flash" method can be kept for up to a year with no perceivable change in taste).
The Tsukiji Market in Tokyo is the largest wholesale market of SBT in the world. Tsukiji handles more than 2,400 tons of fish, worth about US$20 million, a day, with pre-dawn auctions of tuna being the main feature. No tourists are allowed to enter the tuna wholesale areas, which they say is for purposes of sanitation and disruption to the auction process. Higher prices are charged for the highest quality fish; bluefin tuna worth over $150,000 have been sold at Tsukiji. In 2001, a 202-kilogram wild tuna caught in Tsugaru Straight near Omanachi I Aomori Prefecture sold for $173,600, or about $800 a kilogram. In 2013, a 222-kilogram tuna was sold at Tsukiji for $1.8 million dollars, or about $8,000 per kilogram.
Read more about this topic: Southern Bluefin Tuna
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