David @ Tokyo

The May inventory stats were released yesterday, from the usual source at the Ministry of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries.

Through the first 4 months of 2009, outgoing inventory volumes were the lowest they have been in some years. Although inventory was at relatively low levels, things were looking distinctively sluggish with just 1287 tons recorded leaving storage facilities up until the end of April.

Meanwhile incoming inventory volumes have been keeping pace with more recent years - roughly between the volumes seen in 2007 and 2008 (although no where near the volumes recorded in 2006).

May sees somewhat of a turnaround as I'll introduce below, and an announcement from the ICR of reduced prices for whale meat by-products from the JARPA II programme may provide a boost, but with both the global and local Japanese economic recoveries looking shaky in recent weeks, one expects that 2009 will turn out to be a relatively poor year for whale meat demand.

May 2009 outgoing stock: 654 tons

The 654 tons of outgoing inventory itself is very high for a May month. The statistics released record this as 141% of the volume for the same month in the prior year. Additionally, figures dating back to 2001 show this as actually being the top May on record. I suspect there may be a bit of "catch-up" here due the recent low outgoing volumes.

On a cumulative basis, at the end of May 2009, the year to date outgoing inventory volume recorded comes to 1,941 tons, roughly the same level as 2005 (the year prior to the first year of JARPA II and the associated increase in whale meat availability).

May 2009 incoming stock: 146 tons

The 146 tons of incoming volume is a drop from March and April which saw influxes of whale meat into Tokyo and Shimonoseki storage facilities. Nothing spectacular for a typical May.

May 2009 end-of-month inventories: 4,292 tons

A large net decrease in inventory during May, but versus the time in 2008, inventories were approximately 17% larger.

The ICR announcement notes that of 2,655 tons of research programme whale meat by-product from the recent JARPA II cruise, 2,221.5 tons are to be made available to general markets from July 7 through August 10. As such, more than half of the inventory held at the end of May can be accounted for by new product that was not yet available for consumers.

Note also, that the 2009 JARPA II by-product volume of 2,655 tons dwarfs the volume from 2008 of 1982.5 tons, so relatively one would expect inventory levels to be greater at this time in 2009 than in 2008.

May 2009 top inventory regions

The table below shows whale inventory movements in the leading inventory regions.

Region	Stockpile size at month end	Stockpile size at previous month end	Movement
Tokyo city wards	2,942	3,023	-81
Shimonoseki	458	463	-5
Funabashi	292	304	-12
Ishinomaki	196	592	-396
Nagasaki	104	117	-13
Hakodate	44	45	-1
Sasebo	43	52	-9

Ishinomaki was the big mover in May, shipping 396 tons out of storage facilities. The other interesting thing in May was that for exactly the first time in a year, Funabashi inventory dipped below 300 tons. Funabashi was the only stockpile region where inventory levels had been holding relatively static, just above 300 tons. I suspect that there was something special about these 300 or so tons of product, but this sort of detail is unlikely to be elucidated through any readily available sources such as news media.

Graph: Inventory ratio

The spike has ended for now.

Graph: Annual volumes

Graph: Monthly volumes


Graph: Outgoing stock (cumulative)


Graph: Incoming stock (cumulative)


Graph: Regional whale meat inventories



June figures are set for release on August 10.

Labels: whale meat inventory statistics

Poll result:

Animal Planet today released the results of a national Online Zogby Interactive poll of 3,412 Americans ...

... Slightly more than half (53%) said it is not ethically or morally right to kill whales, with 20% disagreeing and 27% unsure.

Interesting. I would have thought that the numbers would be more heavily against whaling (by default), however generally speaking I believe that most people in most countries really don't care much about whaling.

Interesting story from IcelandReview:

Representatives of Japanese companies who plan to import the Icelandic fin whale meat were present during the processing; carrying their own knives to taste the meat and to grade the different cuts.

“They were always with us in the old days and will probably stay for the summer,” Loftsson said.

Commercial anti-whaling industry groups have been constantly trying to tell the west, and sympathetic Iceland officials, that there is "no demand" for Icelandic whale products in Japan (e.g. this).

This revelation that Japanese representatives are on the ground in Iceland tells a different story, one that is consistent with what I think is the case.

Labels: Iceland, whale meat market, whale meat trade

Here's the April inventory statistics update from the usual source.

Not much time again at the moment, will maybe add more commentary later.

April 2009 outgoing stock: 369 tons


April 2009 incoming stock: 767 tons


April 2009 end-of-month inventories: 4,800 tons


April 2009 top inventory regions

Region	Stockpile size at month end	Stockpile size at previous month end	Movement
Tokyo city wards	3,023	2,912	+111
Ishinomaki	592	601	-9
Shimonoseki	463	123	+340
Funabashi	304	310	-6
Nagasaki	117	134	-17
Sasebo	52	48	+4
Hakodate	45	?	n/a
Kushiro	?	48	n/a

Graph: Inventory ratio


Graph: Annual volumes


Graph: Monthly volumes


Graph: Outgoing stock (cumulative)


Graph: Incoming stock (cumulative)



Graph: Regional whale meat inventories

Labels: whale meat inventory statistics

A local Japanese newspaper has a report of another by-caught minke whale.

My summary translation is below.

Labels: whale by-catch, whale meat market

Tena koutou again,

Isanatori let me know about this article here in the Asahi's Kanagawa edition, covering latest developments with regard to this project. (I wrote a bit about it before here.)

Visit the original page to check out the picture of the juicy whale cutlets, but here's a summary of the story:

- A group of shops situated in the Noge area in Yokohama city is working on a project to promote their district with whale cuisine.
- The "Whale Map" which was being prepared is now completed.
- A total of 30 restaurants are participating, with traditional menu items such as bacon and cutlets being served in izakayas and western style eateries, and sushi shops and cafes have introduced new recipes for their menus.
- The participating shops have also secured a bulk distribution route for good quality whale meat.

The article covers the background of the story (see here), some of the new recipes being created, etc.

However, Masanobu Tai (53) who is a member of the co-operative notes that "the biggest problem was securing whale meat". "Commercial whaling was put on hold in 1987 ... ", the article continues, "... leaving only research whaling left. Domestic whale meat supply, which peaked in 1962 at 220,000 tons, had decreased to 4,000 tons in 2007 (Fisheries Agency figures). Whale bacon too became a luxury, and not often seen at the dinner table."

The article says that until now apparently around 50 shops had been serving whale cuisine on their menus. "Each restaurant was ordering in whale meat independently, however this time a new bulk supply route has been secured. The town has made a framework for serving whale."

Mr. Tai was surprised that they were able to muster 30 shops to join the co-operative. The article elucidates that "whale meat that the co-operative orders in is frozen at sea, and isn't thawed out until it reaches each shop. At around 4,000 yen per kilogram, it costs about twice the market price, but compared with whale meat that is thawed out during it's path through the distribution chain, the meat is said to have much less smell, and better flavour."

As for the "Whale Map", it is set to be laid out at main Keikyu train line stations from the end of this month. Restaurants that are featured in the map will all share a common logo. And they have plans to hold a cooking contest at the Noge district's annual "Daidogei" event.


Good luck to them!

Pictured are a couple of dishes some friends and I enjoyed at an unrelated Shinjuku restaurant (Hatsumomiji) back in March this year.

Labels: Noge Whale Row, whale meat market

Four students from abroad were in Japan recently, according to this Mainichi article.
Apparently they are studying at a Copenhagen business university, and in Japan were focusing on whale consumption here.

A 25-year old German student joked:

"I had never eaten whale back in Germany, but the 4 of us have eaten as much as a whole whale while we've been in Japan"

That's the spirit :)

*** UPDATED 2009/05/31***

Tena koe everyone, again struggling to make time at the moment but here's a brief update for the March figures that were released last Friday.

March was again not a good month if you are looking for big decreases in existing inventory, but if you are an anti-whaling propaganda merchant then it's time to put your hat on and go to town as the inventory volumes will be peaking around about now or with the April figures.

March 2009 outgoing stock: 278 tons

Again - another low figure for outgoing inventory. Just 51% compared with the prior year month.

March 2009 incoming stock: 1,861 tons

This month is clearly unusual, and the regional stockpile breakdown figures included in the Ministry's release show that Tokyo's inventory increased by a net of 1,645 tons for the month. Didn't see it in the media (may have missed it), but the JARPA II fleet's supply vessel appears to have returned to Japan during the month of March, and unloaded perhaps as much as 1,750 tons of whale meat by-product in facilities in the Tokyo region. As always, note that this new inventory does get made available for sale on the market until early summer however (and some of it gets set aside for public purposes).

March 2009 end-of-month inventories: 4,402 tons

A 56% increase from February indicates that the previous month's inventory level of 2,819 tons is likely to be a low for 2009.

* * *

Will look to get back to this with graphs etc if the time presents itself - maybe on the weekend.

* * *

---- UPDATE 2009/05/31 ----

Almost June, and the April figures will be out in on the 10th, but here are some of my regular items.

March 2009 top inventory regions

Region	Stockpile size at month end	Stockpile size at previous month end	Movement
Tokyo city wards	2,912	1,267	+1,645
Ishinomaki	601	590	+11
Funabashi	310	318	-8
Nagasaki	134	152	-18
Shimonoseki	123	121	+2
Kushiro	48	53	-5
Sasebo	48	57	-9

Graph: Inventory ratio

The inventory ratio spike continued in March.

Graph: Annual volumes


Graph: Monthly volumes


Graph: Outgoing stock (cumulative)

This year sees outgoing inventory figures the weakest they have been in some years.

Graph: Incoming stock (cumulative)

On the incoming stock side 2009 is shaping up to be second only to 2006, but we'll have a better idea once the April figures are released.

Graph: Regional whale meat inventories

Around half of the inventory shown here in the Tokyo figures was not for sale as of March month-end, and won't be until sometime in June or July.
Funabashi's seemingly static inventory levels remain a mystery.

Labels: whale meat inventory statistics

For those interested in the IWC Scientific Committee advice for IWC 61 (which is much more interesting than the IWC meeting itself), you can find docs here:

http://www.iwcoffice.org/_documents/sci_com/SC61docs/sc61docs.htm

Note that the page is being updated every couple of days, so it's worth checking back frequently if you are into this stuff.

Drop a comment if you see anything there of interest.

Labels: IWC 61

Took some time to get to this, but here's your February whale meat inventory update, based on the recent February release of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries' "Statistics on Distribution of Frozen Fishery Products".

February 2009 outgoing stock: 249 tons

Another measly month on the outgoing stock front, just 249 tons leaving storage. We have to go back to 2004 or thereabouts to find such a weak figure. The figure here is just 50% of the volume for the prior year month.

That said, large fluctuations versus the prior year month are common occurrences for whale, and indeed we may see a relatively large outgoing stock figure for March when those figures are announced.

The weak outgoing figures (and see total inventory below as well) have seen the whale inventory ratio index increase in the past couple of months.


Will February be just another spike, or is there a short term weakness in demand for relatively expensive whale products due to these times of economic turmoil?

February 2009 incoming stock: 101 tons

This figure is fairly typical for a February, although slightly lower (81%) than for the prior year period.

The JARPA II fleet returned to port in Shimonoseki some days ago; the stock offloaded there will not appear in the statistics until the April figures are released around June 10.

February 2009 end-of-month inventories: 2,819 tons

Below 3,000 tons again for February (and subsequent March figures should mark the low point for inventory in 2009), but a slight increase versus the same period in the prior year.

Inventories were 2% higher than at the end of February 2008, but relatively speaking are at quite low levels.

February 2009 top inventory regions

The table below shows whale inventory movements in the leading inventory regions.

Region	Stockpile size at month end	Stockpile size at previous month end	Movement
Tokyo city wards	1,267	1,323	-56
Ishinomaki	590	657	-67
Funabashi	318	320	-2
Nagasaki	152	162	-10
Shimonoseki	121	122	-1
Sasebo	57	?	n/a
Kushiro	53	58	-5
Hakodate	?	53	n/a

No remarkable changes but we see that Sasebo (in the Kyushu region, where whale is said to be most popular in Japan) pops into the list this month, while Hakodate drops out of the top 7.

Graph: Annual volumes

Two months gone, but it looks like a slow start to 2009.

Graph: Monthly volumes

But then there is a relatively low level of inventory at the present time.

Graph: Outgoing stock (cumulative)

Rejigged this graph from 2008 a little, and might change the colours for the 2009 line as time goes by. In any case the slow start to 2009 is clear from this picture.

Graph: Incoming stock (cumulative)

Just a typical start to 2009 from the incoming stock perspective however.

Graph: Regional whale meat inventories

The top blue line is the overall inventory level, and the lines below that are the inventories per region. Tokyo and Ishinomaki are the top two, while Funabashi maintains it's mysterious stock of static whale again this month.


March figures are set to be released on the 8th of May, and I'll have another update for you then.

Labels: stockpile figures, whale meat inventory statistics