This season’s first batch of saury was sold for ¥300,000 ($2,041) per kilogram for some large fish at the Toyosu wholesale market in Tokyo on Friday morning.
The arrival of the season’s first saury was more than a month earlier than last year.
The first batch, which arrived at the market after being landed at Kushiro Port in Hokkaido, totaled about 50 kilograms. While this was a significant decrease compared with last year’s first arrival that totaled around 42 tons, this year’s first batch included some large saury weighing up to about 170 grams, which has been rare in recent years, with smaller fish weighing around 100 grams being more common.
Wholesale prices remained high due to the limited supplies. Saury weighing around 170 grams per fish fetched as high as ¥50,000 each, although this was lower than last year’s record price of ¥500,000 per kilogram.
“These are large, fresh and highly valuable saury,” said Yasuhiro Yamazaki, president of intermediate wholesaler Yamaharu, which purchased the saury of ¥50,000 per fish. “I recommend that they are eaten raw, such as in the form of sashimi.”
The saury will soon hit shelves at fresh fish shops in Tokyo.
It was the first time in three years that saury was landed in July, when the fishing ban is lifted. Amid the prolonged period of poor saury catches, Yamazaki said, “We hope that landings will increase from now on.”
