Nippon Suisan Kaisha - See Also

See Also

• Fishing industry in Japan

1. FY2011 Consolidated Sales Results　

(Business Segments) Unit: Millions of Yen

Marine Products Business : 223,807

Food Products Business : 259,079

Fine Chemicals Business : 25,993

Distribution and Cold Storage Business : 12,448

Others : 16,701

Total : 538,030

(Geographic Segments) Unit: Millions of Yen

Japan : 416,258

North America : 54,099

South America : 12,392

Asia : 9,726

Europe : 45,552

Total : 538,030

2. Company Profile

Nippon Suisan Kaisha, Ltd.　known as Nissui, is a Japanese seafood conglomerate headquartered in Tokyo Japan. Nissui was founded in 1911 and now employs 10,513 people (consolidated companies) worldwide.

Nissui has expanded business bases throughout the world. Though Nissui had once concentrated its business on deep-sea fishery, after the 1970s, when countries adopted the Fishery Conservation and Management Act (a policy establishing a 200-nautical mile conservation zone), Nissui strove to work in cooperation with other countries having resources in order to foster the stable use of marine resources, improve aquaculture-related technologies, and establish a mechanism of global and direct access to marine resources. At the same time, the Company has established a global supply chain by extending its sales bases as consumption of marine products rose in other countries. These mutual connections between procurement, production, processing and marketing capabilities boasted by the companies of the Nissui Group are described as the "Global Links".

Business Activities in Japan

< Marine Products Business >

The marine products business is the core business of the Nissui Group. Nissui established a system for always supplying safe and delicious fish of great quality, where the entire process from accessing marine resources to delivering products (from fishing and aquaculture) to the customer's table, including processing and marketing, is implemented in an integrated manner. In addition to the supply of marine products (fresh or frozen fish), Nissui has improved its technology for making the most of oil and fat (fish oil), meal (fish meal and feed for aquaculture), and other marine resources, and are pursuing new values. Recently Nissui has been focusing energy on aquaculture in Japan to strengthen the food supply system for the future. To establish unique aquacultural technology, Nissui established the Oita Marine Biological Technology Center in 1994. Here, researchers are engaged in the study of fish diseases, and the development of new breeding technologies and feed with the aim of developing Nissui's original integrated aquaculture system.

< Food products Business >

The food products business is a driving force of the Nissui Group and operates in conjunction with its marine products business. This segment produces and sells frozen, canned, and bottled food, fish sausage and fish paste-based products such as chikuwa (steamed fish cake) and crab-flavored kamaboko. The Nissui Group's food product business has grown steadily thanks to its excellent R&D functions, product planning ability, procurement and distribution functions, and processing technology, and also by listening to customer opinions. With globalizing markets, Nissui is striving to build the Global Supply Chain for realizing the synergy of the Group's functions by effectively combining their overseas bases, which are expected to achieve good results in terms of raw materials procurement, production and processing, and market expansion for the future, with their domestic bases that are characterized by their value-added commodity production.

The Nissui Group's fine chemicals business has put into practice its corporate philosophy: "Create new value from marine resources using an accumulation of expertise." A typical example is the R&D of unsaturated fatty acids "EPA" and "DHA." A high content of these substances are contained in sardines and mackerel and have the effect of reducing lipid in blood, thus preventing arterioscleroses. Nissui developed and commercialized high-purity refined EPA as an active pharmaceutical ingredient of ethical drugs in cooperation with Mochida Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., and has commenced producing "chitosan" and "Glucosamine" refined from crab shell and "arachidonic acid" by bio-production, in addition to "EPA" and "DHA" refined for food product ingredients. Nissui supplies these functional materials as ingredients of additives for baby milk and nutritional supplements and other food products and supplements, and even as materials of cosmetic products in Japan, the West, and Asia. The Nissui Group includes Nissui Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., a manufacturer of pharmaceuticals, supplements, culture media, and diagnostic agents primarily made from natural ingredients. The Nissui Group's fine chemicals business will continue to help enrich the lives of people all over the world.

< Distribution and Cold Storage Business >

The fishery and food businesses have supported Nissui's Distribution and Cold Storage Business, and were unified as Nissui Logistics Corporation in April, 2007. It expends its 26 cold storage facilities throughout Japan and has a role as a global supply chain of Nissui group.

Nissui’s Global Supply Chain

< Fisheries Business >

In the white-meat fish fishery business, one of Nissui's core businesses, the company has access to marine resources in waters throughout the world in cooperation with its Group companies and partners in which they process these resources into various products, delivering the products to markets worldwide.

< Aquaculture Business >

The aquaculture Business is intended to utilize Nissui's original and highly reliable expertise regarding the entire process ranging from the development and breeding of parent fish to egg collection, hatching, smolt raising, feed preparation, adult fish farming, and processing. Nissui also develop and produce their own feed, to manage the full production cycle of both raw materials and finished products, and to meet the needs for traceability throughout the supply chain. Currently Nissui cultivates trout, yellowtail, and bluefin tuna.

< Production Business >

Nissui's production business supplies the customer not only with Food Products but also with new value for marine resources. The main activity in this business category is the production of Fine Chemicals (i.e., pharmaceuticals and functional materials made from active ingredients extracted or refined from marine resources based on the results of diversified R&D efforts). This business has helped to establish a new Global Supply Chain through a unique system of management that extends beyond the barriers of individual business segments.

Business Activities by Region

< North America >

The U.S. is a country with large marine resources in the world and occupies an important position as one of the major global fish markets. UniSea, a Nissui Group member, has served the role of a base for the procurement, processing, and production of resources since the 1970s. In the latter half of the 1990s, as global demand for marine resources increased and the U.S. market expected to grow larger, Nissui began producing and selling pre-cooked and frozen seafood. With Gorton's joining these activities in 2001, K&P in 2005, and F.W. Bryce in 2006, Nissui's integrated supply chain from procurement to processing and marketing was greatly strengthened and the American companies collaborate well as "Local Links" in North America. As a result, the Nissui Group has grown to become one of the top ten producers in the U.S. seafood industry.

< Europe>

In Europe, the demand for marine resources is steadily increasing due to mounting customer interest in health, food safety, and security, as well as traditional dietary habits. Since it regards Europe as an important market equal to Japan and the U.S., the Nissui Group established European "Local Links" in collaboration with Cité Marine as processor and Nordic Seafood group and Europacífico as distributors in order to maximize the value of its global marine resources. By expanding and evolving these marketing functions, the Group has established its supply chain in Europe and made it a base comparable to the U.S. for Global Links.

< South America >

South America has some of the largest marine resources in the world, and the Nissui Group has been doing business in this region since the 1970s. The Group's member companies engaged in aquaculture and fisheries there play an important part in procurement and production, thus making the most of the Group's basic function: "the ability to access resources."

< Asia >

Countries in Asia and Oceania have shown remarkable market growth. Marine products, farm products, and processed chicken products are important exports for them. In cooperation with its partners in these countries, the Nissui Group is developing many bases for production and processing in these regions. The bases for access to resources include Sealord in New Zealand, which plays a central role in the Group's fishery segment. Among the Group companies serving as processing bases are NIGICO in Vietnam, Nissui Thailand, Shandong Sanfod Nissui in China, and Tai Mei Food in Taiwan. These companies are responsible for important tasks in the production and processing functions of the Group's Global Supply Chain.

Creating Value

< Research and Development>

Nissui's R&D activities are related to each of the stages from accessing resources to delivering value and support not merely in the area of technology, but also in terms of quality, safety, and security. The outcome of these activities shows its effects on the fishery and food businesses, as well as the fine chemical and integrated aquaculture businesses, and is applied to actual production sites as the means to make the most of finite marine resources. The center of our research institutes is the Central Research Laboratory, originally the "Hayatomo Fishery Research Group" established in 1920, the first private research organization on fishery in Japan. The Laboratory engages in research covering many fields and serves as the base for all other research institutes of Nissui. Especially in the field of aquaculture, the Laboratory, in close cooperation with the Oita Marine Biological Technology Center, is focusing on the study of the culture of safe and good-quality fish, while giving due consideration to the environment. The Tokyo Innovation Center, which was opened in April 2011, is a creative and functional research & development base that will support the Nissui Group for the next 100 years to come.

Trust in Food

< Quality Assurance >

Nissui takes charge of every phase from marine resources to processed foods, and its one and only mission is providing high-quality, safe and delicious foods and commodities to its customers. For companies that handle foods, assurance of safety is the basis of their business activities and the most important issue. In order to provide its customers with safe products, Nissui has established its own quality control standards and developed its own quality control system, and engages in various activities in each process from the procurement of raw materials to production, inspection, and distribution. Nissui also has set standards for food defense for protecting its food products from malicious third parties, and protect foods against intentional harm in both tangible and intangible aspects, including water safety, management of medical agents, access control, and strengthening of communication among employees. Nissui has established a voluntary quality assurance standard that is equivalent to HACCP, the quality control system established to global standards, and rigorously applies its standard to commodity production and quality control. In addition, to apply this control standard correctly, Nissui established the Nissui Technical Academy in May 2001, where they have been working on the development of human resources as the first step toward improving the entire Group's quality control. Furthermore, in 2003 Nissui laid down the Quality Assurance Code to encourage each of its employees to commit themselves to providing safe and reliable food products with a higher degree of awareness. This policy was also applied to the overseas production bases, where Quality Control Centers have been established in Thailand and China to perform quality control of raw materials, semi-finished products and finished products, as well as for the instruction and education of their local production plants. (The Quality Control Center China became Qingdao Nissui Food Research and Development Co., Ltd. in April 2008.) Moreover, in 2006, Nissui promptly took steps to comply with the positive list system, strengthened its global inspections systems, and introduced a new standard certification framework for farms and processing materials.

Sustainable utilization of marine resources

Currently, global demand for marine products is increasing. The world consumption of marine products per person nearly doubled in 2007 compared to 1961. While the world population has already exceeded 7 billion (as announced by the United Nations in 2011), the demand for marine products has been increasing even faster. On the other hand, the world’s natural fishery resources are being depleted; thus, the sustainable utilization of marine resources has become a very important theme for international society. As the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea came into effect, coastal countries were required to decide on the total allowable catch and measures for saving and managing marine resources within their exclusive economic zones based on the maximum resource usage (maximum sustainable production volume) based on which depletion of marine resources will not incur. Such development led each country to take various measures relating to resource control. Meanwhile, third-party certifications that accredit sustainable fishery activities have become popular, especially in Europe. Under these conditions, the Nissui Group has been taking a global approach to maintaining sustainable marine resources taking into consideration the preservation of the global environment.

We are carrying out various initiatives for the sustainable utilization of the marine resources of the world’s oceans

The Nissui Group has established “Nissui Global Links,” a supply chain that connects production, processing, and sales bases around the world. In our first approach, we have made use of this network to formulate basic policies on sustainable utilization of marine resources, and now we are working on the establishment of measures common to the entire Group. These activities are carried forward at international meetings involving all our overseas Group companies under the leadership of the Global Links Sustainability Board which determines policies on sustainable utilization of marine resources by the Nissui Group, and Sustainability Officer who is in charge of practical operations in accordance with the instructions of the Board. Two fishing grounds for respective fish species, Alaska pollack in Alaska and hoki in New Zealand, have already been MSC* certified. In addition, the Nissui Group supports the research activities of the Society for Conservation of Fisheries Resources and Marine Environment（CoFRaME）. The Society independently investigates the volume of sustainable marine resources and submits recommendations to various administrative agencies based on the results achieved, thereby facilitating activities toward measures such as marine resource protective policies. Another initiative taken by the Nissui Group is to independently analyze the major trends of marine resources and create processes for sustainable resource utilization based on scientific investigation.

• MSC: An acronym for the Marine Stewardship Council, an international NPO established in 1997. It works toward the spread of the sustainable fishery through its certification system and the “marine eco label.”

Whaling History'

With the implementation of the ban on commercial whaling in 1986, the strategy of the Government of Japan, Nippon Suisan, Maruha, and Kyokuyo was to continue commercial whaling at reduced levels, claiming it was for ‘scientific research’, but continuing to commercially trade the products. Although the number of whales killed was initially reduced, the hunt has steadily expanded since 1994. In 1987, 273 Antarctic minke whales were harpooned. Twenty years later, the Kyodo Senpaku whaling fleet plans to kill nearly 1,300, nearly five times as many.

In 1994, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) agreed a further layer of international protection for whales in the area of the Southern Ocean, through the adoption of an IWC whale sanctuary which prohibited all whale hunting. The Southern Ocean whale sanctuary was adopted by 23 votes to one: Japan was alone in its opposition. Rather than respect the legality of the Southern Ocean whale sanctuary, Kyodo Senpaku continued to kill up to 440 minke whales there each year.

In 2005, when Maruha, Kyokuyo and Nippon Suisan jointly owned the Kyodo Senpaku whaling fleet, a major expansion of the hunt was planned, with a proposal to kill up to 935 minke whales, 50 fin whales and 50 humpback whales each year. Humpback and fin whale populations were severely depleted by commercial whaling during the first half of the 20th century, particularly in the Southern Ocean, and were designated as vulnerable and endangered by the World Conservation Union (IUCN) in 1996. Historic records show that Nippon Suisan, Kyokuyo and Maruha hunted more than 4,200 humpback whales and more than 115,000 fin whales in the Southern Ocean before their protection in 1963 and 1976 respectively.

In 2005/06, the whalers killed 853 minke whales and ten fin whales. Due to a fire on the Nisshin Maru factory ship which cut the season short, the following Antarctic season ended in a smaller hunt of 505 minke whales and three fin whales.8 The 2007/08 season was destined to be the first humpback whale hunt for more than four decades, resulting in unprecedented international attention to the plight of Antarctic whales and an intense outcry at the Kyodo Senpaku plan. In December 2007, the Government of Japan agreed to ‘delay’ the humpback hunt until after the June 2008 Annual Meeting of the IWC. According to Japan’s Foreign Minister Komura, the humpback hunt will only be postponed as long as “…the IWC is judged to move towards a normalization of its activities”, by which he means lifting the ban on commercial whaling. The expanded Southern Ocean whale kill is intended to be carried out indefinitely, with reviews every six years. If the full hunt is carried out from 2008 onwards, it will result in the death of over 5,000 Antarctic minkes, 213 fin whales and 150 humpback whales during its first six years. While the number of whales killed each year has doubled, the tonnage of whale meat produced will triple; fin whales yield an estimated 26 tonnes of whale meat, compared to just 4 tonnes from Antarctic minke whales. Clearly, the aim of the expanded hunt is to increase production and consumption of whale meat in Japan. With rumours of a new factory ship to be built at an estimated cost of up to $188 million,13 there is no end in sight to Kyodo Senpaku’s commercial whaling, unless international pressure is brought to bear on Japan’s three influential seafood giants.

http://www.ifaw.org/united-states/node/1123