SEAFOOD.COM NEWS [BANR JAPAN REPORTS] tokyo - Feb 19, 2010 - Japanese household spending on seafood in 2009 dropped 3.2% amid recession, staying below Y90,000 for the second consecutive year; crab and octopus saw increase, while tunas and salmon fell . See attached EXCEL Table. Reflecting the protracted economic downturn, average per-household spending on major seafood commodities in Japan in 2009 dropped 3.2% from the previous year to Y85,412, staying below Y90,000 for two years in a row, according to a recent survey by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.

The survey covered 7,719 families having two or more members, excluding agricultural, forestry and fisheries households. It showed that seafood expenditures fell in line with the decline of general food spending which lost 1% to Y898,154.  Spending on fresh fish and shellfish fell off 3.5% to Y50,002, barely maintaining the Y50,000 mark. Purchase volume per household, however, dropped only marginally by 0.4% to about 36kg. Expenditures on fresh fish alone slid 3.7% to Y45,340, with volume edging down 0.6% to about 32 kg. By commodity, tunas, salmon, shrimp, yellowtail and assorted sashimi sustained year-on-year decline across the board. On the other hand, crab, octopus, sea bream, saury and sardine registered increases. Notably, octopus saw its volume jump about 20%, with value surging 7.1%. Among shellfish, scallop and oyster saw their value advance.  Spending on salted and dried fish tumbled 5.1% to Y15,800, with volume also dwindling 5% to about 9.4 kg. Salted salmon, pollock roe, dried jack mackerel and dried small sardines turned lower. Spending on fish-meat surimi products weakened 1.1% to Y9260 while only chikuwa (one of surimi products) fared well. Other processed seafood on the whole sustained a decline of 0.5% to Y10,350, but major commodities had relative small-margin drops. Dried food and seaweed also receded 0.5% to Y9,332. Kombu kelp increased, while wakame seaweed shrank. Spending on prepared food dipped 0.2% to Y98,653 but prepared eel and frozen prepared food showed increase. Meanwhile, spending on meat which competes with seafood totaled Y78,910, down 2.4%. However, purchase volume saw an year-on-year growth for all the three major commodities: beef (up 4%), pork (up 2%) and poultry (up 8%). Consumers spent less money on eating-out during the year amid the prolonged slumping economy, with the total value standing at Y162,450, down 2.3%.