Being the highest consumers of aqua products Japanese are attracting interest of STG, the Promotional Committee for Turkish Aqua Products.
14 billion dollars worth of fishery is exported annually to Japan. Aiming to increase aqua products exports in world markets, STG participated for the second time in International Aqua Products and Technologies Fair held between 19th – 21st August in Japan and promoted Turkish aqua products. FAO data shows that per capita consumption of aqua products is 45 kg, the highest in the world. Melih Isliel, head of the promotional committee said that despite its own annual production of 4.2 million tons of fishery, Japan imports around 4 million tons of fishery worth of 14 billion dollars. As the third largest aqua products producer in the world, national production could not meet national consumption. Isliel said, “Japan has 15 percent share in the world imports of fishery. Aqua products are the most important source of food for Japanese people. Demand is high for these products. A typical traditional diet of Japanese family is composed of resh fish, vegetables and fruits. Japanese are generally imports fresh/frozen bluefin tuna fillets from Turkey.
Japanese consumers are demanding high quality for their imports. They consume tuna fish as in the form of sushi, as sliced. They are sold at wholesale markets. There are about one thousand wholesale markets in Japan. Our companies who want to sell in Japan have to differentiate their offers as well. Japanese prefer fresh and red fishes. In the booth we have at the fair we served seabass and seabream that were cooked with different sauces and sashimi made of seabass to about 3 thousand visitors.” Sinan Kiziltan, STG board member and chairman of Association of Aegean Aqua products and animal products exporters said on the occasion, “Important investments are done in farming of tunny. In 2014 3.4 thousand tons of aqua products were exported to Japan, earning 54.3 million dollars. 93 percent of exports were Bluefin tuna fish. Export earnings from this market reached to 20 million dollars in the first seven month of 2015. The booth of STG in the fair was one of the most attractive ones.” More than 1200 companies from 13 countries participated in 15th International Aqua Products and Technologies Fair. KLC Food Co., Agromey Food Co. has also participatedin the fair with their special booths. STG was represented in the fair by Chairman Melih Isliel, members Sinan Kiziltan, M. Taner Ciger, Ismail Aksoy, Abdulkadir Yeni cikan and Serap Ünal. STG booth was also visited by S. Mete Ozbalaban, Turkish commercial advisor in Tokyo.
