David @ Tokyo

Another delay on my part, but once again here's your monthly (August 2009) update for whale meat inventory statistics from Japan's Ministry of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries.

As I alluded to last time, I was unable to put these up sooner as I took a jaunt down to the Philippines. It was smashing - did some snorkeling, scuba diving, swimming, plus enjoyed some local cuisine. Best mangoes I've ever had in my life (don't eat mangoes often, but still they were amazing). More on this another time maybe.

Here's the update:

August Statistics

Statistic	Volume (tons)
Outgoing	809
Incoming	1851
Month-end	5288

The figures speak for themselves, it was a busy month with the incoming volume for an August being a record in the history I have on this going back to 2001, and 16% higher than in the prior-year period. The bulk of this seemingly was from the offshore component of the ICR's JAPRN II programme conducted in the western north pacific, which drew to a close at the end of July. Presumably it wasn't until August that by-product meat from this programme hit storage facilities. The ICR press release noted that bad weather hindered the programme this year in the northern sectors of the research area, and as a result only 43 minke whales were taken versus a planned sample size of 100, however for Sei (100) and Bryde's (50) whales, the planned number of whales were caught. Only 1 sperm whale was caught from the 10 permitted.

This additional product, while reflected in the inventory figures, will likely not be going on sale until November, judging by the sequence of events last year. The ICR will probably put out another release shortly, giving a break down of the by-products that they will be putting on sale.

Meanwhile, the outgoing volume figure was also the most for an August since 2002, however only 3% higher than the August 2008 figure. The July 2009 figure had also been the lowest in 5 years, so a somewhat stronger figure in August was not so unexpected.

On a net basis, total inventory was boosted up to 5288 tons, the bulk of which is held in Tokyo storage facilities. The last time inventory was so high was back in the summer of 2006, however in that year inventory peaked in April at a much higher level, just short of 6000 tons. As for August 2009, the outgoing figure was a 25% increase versus the prior month, and again 31% higher than the same time a year ago. While demand for whale products (as indicated through the outgoing volume figures) appears softer this year than prior to the global economic crisis, on the supply side the amount of incoming volume has actually been greater in 2009 than any year except the bumper 2006 year, which is also contributing to the increasing inventory levels.

This situation of relatively high inventory levels is not likely to change over the next few months, due to the additional 1500 tons of Icelandic fin whale products reportedly set for import into Japan. The exact timing of the related transactions does not seem to be clear yet however.


Top Regions

Region	Stockpile size at month end	Stockpile size at previous month end	Movement
Tokyo city wards	3,475	2,512	+963
Ishinomaki	394	261	+133
Hakodate	392	394	-2
Shimonoseki	274	339	-65
Funabashi	257	273	-16
Nagasaki	172	127	+45
Sasebo	79	-	-

The bulk of the incoming and outgoing volume for the month appears to have occurred in Tokyo storage facilities, with a net 963 ton gain.


Outgoing stock (cumulative)


Incoming stock (cumulative)


Monthly volumes


Annual volumes

Labels: whale meat inventory statistics, whale meat market, whale meat trade

Hi everyone, here's your July update on Japanese whale meat inventory statistics, data as usual pulled from the homepage of the Ministry of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries.

These stats came out last month actually, and indeed the August stats are due for release next Friday (October 9th) but I'm not likely to be able to publish those here until some time after that (will be enjoying a long weekend).

Not evident in these statistics, but the word is that Iceland's fin whaling company will be supplying around 1500 tons of fin whale meat products to the Japanese market sometime in the upcoming months. This will be a pretty historical event for the whale market here, as there haven't been any really significant levels of exports for around 2 decades. There is a fairly good chance that this will result in the total inventory level hitting a new peak in recent history. Good news for whale consumers.

July Statistics

Statistic	Volume (tons)
Outgoing	653
Incoming	381
Month-end	4246

Both the Outgoing and Incoming volumes were around 73-74% of the same month in the prior year, but the Month-end volume was 131%.




Top Regions

Region	Stockpile size at month end	Stockpile size at previous month end	Movement
Tokyo city wards	2,512	2,865	-353
Hakodate	394	395	-1
Shimonoseki	339	447	-108
Funabashi	273	281	-8
Ishinomaki	261	185	+76
Nagasaki	127	107	+20
Kawasaki	76	-	-

Sasebo dropped out of the top 7 in July, with Kawasaki's extra stocks bringing it up into 7th place.

The graph below shows the total inventory (top line) and the regional breakdown below it for illustrative purposes.


Outgoing stock (cumulative)


Incoming stock (cumulative)


Monthly volumes


Annual volumes

Labels: whale meat inventory statistics, whale meat market, whale meat trade

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

Breaking news:

Norway's whale meat approved as well, first time in 20 years

That's the headline at Tokyo Shimbun.

The Kyodo News article says that the Japanese government approved an import of 5.6 tons of whale meat from Norway at the beginning of February, and this was acknowledged by authorities in both countries.

The article notes that it was just last year in September that 66.6 tons of whale meat from Iceland was approved, and that it appears that the Japanese government is looking to support the only two nations conducting commercial whaling on the consumption front.

Additionally the article suggests that this could lead Europe, the USA and Australia to step up their criticisms of Japan at the IWC's inter-plenary meeting that will start in Rome from March 9.

The Norwegian whale meeting is reported to have arrived at Nagoya's port last year in June, leading related agencies and ministries to consider how it be handled. A domestic importer officially submitted an import request to the Fisheries Agency this year at the end of January, and the Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry approved this on February 6. This is the first whale meat import since 1988.

Of the 5.6 tons, the portion for eating raw was found to be in excess of bacteria regulations during inspections carried out after the import approval was granted, and so it was not accepted, however the portion for use in cooking is expected to pass through customs shortly so long as it has no problems on the food safety front.

Regarding the fact that the import took 8 months to complete from the time of arrival until the time of approval, the Fisheries Agencies Far Seas Fisheries division explained that the procedural matters went slowly because it's the first import in a long time.


The Japan Times is running an English version of the story from the same source (Kyodo) but with some differences to the Japanese version.

The Norwegian meat arrived at Nagoya port last June, but the Fisheries Agency waited until late January to file for permission to import it.

The Japanese version is explicit that the import request came from a domestic importer, so for that and other reasons it seems like the English version is wrong to report that it was the Fisheries Agency requesting import permission. Indeed, as a part of the government it would make no sense if the Fisheries Agency were requesting import permission.

But the English version has more details regarding the delays:

"There is some sensitivity because it's whale meat," a Fisheries Agency official said when asked why it took eight months to get the OK after the meat arrived.

Another reason was the paperwork, the official said. It's been awhile since the agency has had to deal with whale meat from Norway, the official explained.

Some observers suspect the delay reflects caution on the part of the government, which is concerned that the decision could stoke rebuke from antiwhaling nations.

At any rate, this is very promising news for the Norwegian whale meat exporters and whalers alike, not to mention whale meat consumers in Japan, although from the article it seems clear there are still some outstanding issues surrounding food safety and timely completion of procedures. Yet one can't help but wonder if the procedural delay wasn't at least a contributing factor to the problems with the meat for raw consumption.

As for the anti-whaling nations, we don't hear India complaining when Australia exports hundreds of thousands of tons of beef to Japan each year, and likewise anti-whaling nations have no right to complain about legal bilateral trade between whale meat producing nations and Japan. Nor should Japan feel obliged to pay undue attention if such complaints are forthcoming, but of course, Japan will be Japan.

Nonetheless, the timing here is fortunate. Indeed the anti-whaling nations should be in no two minds that whaling nations are going to continue to be whaling nations, despite what the commercial anti-whaling industry might say to the contrary and regardless of what goes on at the IWC. The IWC has the mandate of conserving whale stocks and regulating whaling, but not regulating trade in whale products.

With respect to the IWC, the anti-whaling nations are in a position only to decide whether they want to play an active, constructive role in the management of whaling. This is where their thoughts ought to be focused, not on trade related matters that are none of their business.

Labels: IWC Normalization, Norway, whale meat trade

Another month has gone by, and we have another release of MAFF's "Statistics on Distribution of Frozen Fishery Products" to devour for whale meat stockpile information (PDF, Excel).

Since April there was an announcement about the by-product from the JARPA II cruise, which I introduced here.

Figures this time are for May.

When looking at these figures we often see they are reconcilable with events happening throughout the year in relation to the activities of the government's research whaling activities. In May one such event was the conclusion of the coastal component of the JARPN II programme conducted in the Sanriku area (Pacific coast off north eastern Japan) on May 18 (MAFF, ICR announcements in Japanese). 60 minke whales were caught in this programme this year, during April and May, so in terms of the May stockpile figures there would only be a limited impact expected in any case, but additionally the by-product whale meat resulting from the coastal components of the JARPN II programme is (at least mainly) sold fresh, rather than put into cold storage. Hence, no very notable amount of incoming stock is expected due to that activity.

On the other hand, a new dimension to the supply side of the whale meat market has now eventuated, namely the export/import of whale meat products from Iceland and Norway to Japan. News of this movement broke at the start of June, although reports indicated that the whale meat in question had already arrived in Japan, so it was likely here in late May. However, while noting that there was no legal issue with the trade, government officials stated that they had not yet received notice of the trade. As noted by the Suisan Keizai newspaper, the paperwork required to complete the trade is not trivial and so some (unknown) amount of time will seemingly be required to complete it. Recent statements made suggest that this was still the case as of the beginning of July. The whale meat, in the meantime, is said to be held in a customs storage facility.

So, with that in mind let's see what the figures show for the month to the end of May.

May 2008 outgoing stock: 464 tons

Just a typical May on the outgoing stock front. This figure of 464 tons is a tad up on the figure for May 2007.

May 2008 incoming stock: 514 tons

This figure is a very big one for a May. It is by far the largest incoming stock volume for a May since at least 2001 (as far back as the figures I have go), and represents a 237% increase on the incoming volume for the same month last year.

337 tons of this figure came into what MAFF classifies as "consumption areas", and the remaining 177 tons were recorded as moving into the other "production areas". We'll see some specifics about this below in the regional stockpile figure information.

May 2008 end-of-month stockpile: 3,690 tons

The stockpile is down to 92% of the volume it was at the same time last year, although it moved up 50 tons on April.

Keep in mind that a large chunk of this is confirmed as not being for sale as of May.

May 2008 top stockpile regions

The top stockpile regions, their stockpile levels and movement since the previous month are shown in the table below:

Region	Stockpile size at month end	Stockpile size at previous month end	Movement
Tokyo city wards	2,074	2,115	-41
Ishinomaki	512	503	+9
Funabashi	318	?	n/a
Kushiro	133	139	-6
Shimonoseki	130	139	-9
Nagasaki	88	107	-19
Kawasaki	84	102	-18
Yokohama	?	152	n/a

The biggest mover this month was a complete newcomer - Funabashi.

Funabashi is a designated "consumption area", situated in Chiba prefecture just to the east of Tokyo. Funabashi wasn't noted in the top 7 regions in April figures, and as the 7th placed region at the end of April held 102 tons, we can deduce that at least 216 tons of the 318 recorded as being situated in Funabashi storage facilities at the end of May was not present in there as of the end of April.

This sudden leap in stock stored in Funabashi doesn't appear to be an artifact of MAFF's survey method (at least, the April survey end-of-month stockpile volume of 3,640 tons matches the May survey end-of-previous-month stockpile volume exactly).

As far as figures for Funabashi go, this is the first time any significant level of volume has been recorded there, although I only have detailed figures for between 2001 and 2005. During that time period, stocks were recorded as fluctuating between 10 and 20 tons in any given month.

As such, the 318 tons held in Funabashi at the end of May represents quite an unusual event.

So where has the whale meat come from? My speculation for this month is that at least some of this meat is related to the Iceland / Norway trade matter. Funabashi city is located in the same prefecture as Narita airport, which is the likely port of entry for the wares from the North Atlantic, and thus possibly the location where the product is being stored while the import procedures are in progress.

However, the volume of meat recorded in Funabashi is 318 tons, of which at least 200 tons (maybe much more) can't be accounted for. The recent trade from Iceland and Norway to Japan was reported to have only involved between 60 and 80 tons of product.

Next month's movements may give some more hints as to the nature of the meat stored in Funabashi.

Graph: Annual volumes


Graph: Monthly volumes


Graph: Outgoing stock (cumulative)


Graph: Incoming stock (cumulative)


Graph: Regional whale meat stockpiles



June 2008 figures will be out on August the 8th.

Labels: stockpile figures, whale meat trade

I mentioned recently that Japan might make clear it's intentions regarding the import of Icelandic and Norwegian whale products once the situation with the IWC has been cleared up.

Well, I was wrong there, as has widely been reported in both the Western and Japanese media. Whale products from Iceland and Norway were said to have already arrived in Japan, although the paperwork to complete the import appears yet to be finalized.

Ministry of Agriculture officials noted that there is no legal problem with the import of whale meat from Iceland and Norway, although they noted that had not received any import request. At a press conference, one reporter asked the vice-minister whether the Ministry would tell the media if such an import request were received. The official responded that such a transaction is a matter between private entities in different states, and he did not think it necessary to announce to the media every single such matter.

The Daily Suisan Keizai newspaper apparently ran an article on the topic, with some interesting points:

• When importing whale meat, the import procedure includes DNA checking (to keep a track of legal sources of whale meat), some kind of food checks, and apparently approval from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, including certification for the country of origin etc, is required, making the customs procedure a slightly time consuming affair.

• Kyodo Senpaku (KS) was also contacted for comment, as they are currently in charge of sales of Japan's research whaling by-product meat. KS noted that they weren't aware of the import, but recognised the import as a sign that whale meat is a normal kind of food in these European countries as well. Finally they noted that once the import is formally confirmed by the government that if there is a request to assist in sales that they would like to do so. These comments were apparently made by a Mr. Tajirou Tsurumoto who is a director at KS.

• Someone from the Icelandic embassy made similar comments to Japanese officials, with respect to the matter being one between private entities, although the official also noted that they were interested in observing the matter to see what happens.

(a copy of the article was posted here)

At this stage, there is still only 60 ~ 80 tons of meat, according to the reports, so this won't have a huge impact on whale meat stockpile statistics, at least at this point in time.

* * *

Update 6/19 to add some links.

Labels: Iceland, Norway, whale meat market, whale meat trade

An Iceland representative in Japan was reported in the Chunichi newspaper on October 9 saying that they were continuing to negotiate with Japanese officials on a recommencement of trade in whale meat products, and were hoping to secure access "by next spring".

Unfortunately the article disappeared from the Internet quite quickly so I'm unable to provide additional detail but, as avid readers will know, around the same time the Iceland government also announced that they wouldn't be renewing the commercial quotas for the new season.

Most anti-whaling groups were rather pleased, but others (if I recall correctly, WWF International namely) were critical, as the reason for the quota not being renewed was that "no market" for the whale meat had been secured. Indeed at the time Iceland's IWC representative was quoted in the western media stating that negotiations to gain access to the target Japanese market were continuing. Nonetheless, earlier statements from related parties had suggested that the Icelanders had been hoping access would be secured by the end of summer 2007.

Incidentally, the apparent stock of meat Iceland has available - something like 250 tonnes of fin whale meat - would seemingly be absorbed pretty easily by the Japanese market, which over the past 12 months has seen average outgoing stock at around 700 tonnes per month, or 8,400 tonnes. Iceland's additional supply would amount to only an additional 2~3% supply.

More recently, this Jiji Tsushin article appeared on December the 13th. This time it's about Norway, my rough translation below for English readers:

Whale meat imports "waiting for Japan's response" - Norwegian ambassador to Japan hopes for recommencement after 19 years

Norway's Ambassador to Japan, Åge Grutle, made it known that his country is proceeding with negotiations with the government regarding Norway's desire for Japan to import meat from whales caught there. The Ambassador stated that "Norway wants to resume exports next year. We are waiting for Japan's response". It would be the first time since 1989 if Japan does resume whale meat trade with Norway.

Regarding whale meat imports, Japan is also considering a trade resumption with Iceland, with which the trade had continued up until 1991. There is said to be no problem with whale meat trade with respect to the Washington Treaty (CITES). Japan is also hoping to strengthen ties with nations that support whaling through the trade resumption. However, as there would be an inevitable response from western anti-whaling nations, the Fisheries Agency "wishes to carefully observe the circumstances both at home and abroad" (far seas fisheries division), and is taking a cautious approach towards making the final decision.

As for circumstances abroad, apparently a Norwegian whalers union recently called upon it's government to cease co-operation with Japan on whaling issues until the issue of trade access is resolved.

The Iceland government's decision to hold off on issuing further commercial whaling quotas until a market for the meat has been found appears to have a similar intent behind it.

Back in Japan, Toshio Katsukawa, a fisheries researcher who regularly criticises the Fisheries Agency, suggested on his blog that Japan ought to move to resume trade with Iceland and Norway, and in doing so make clear the financial benefits available through sustainable whaling. As I understood him, it seemed he thought this would see other nations also switch to the sustainable whaling camp at the IWC, and thus heighten the pressure for overturning the moratorium.

As far as the whaling issue is concerned, to my mind resuming trade can only be a positive for Japan and the whaling camp (although I won't be holding my breath waiting for the western anti-whaling nations to adopt a sustainable whaling policy as a result). However these matters evidently aren't quite so simple. More waiting-and-seeing I'm afraid!

Labels: Iceland, Norway, whale meat market, whale meat trade