SSushi

Why is the price of this year’s salmon roe so low?


At a fresh fish store in Hokkaido, where the fish is produced, fresh shinako were sold for $2 per 100 grams, 30% cheaper than last year.

At supermarkets in Tokyo, far from the producing area, most are sold for around $6 to $9 per 100 grams.

Why?

30 comments

  3. I thought I saw on Japanese news yesterday the Salmon catch this year was much higher than expected, highest since 2016 and thus more salmon equals more salmon roe

  5. Huge Pink Salmon returns here in British Columbia this year but sadly the Chum runs have been small and that’s the Best Ikura of All.

  11. I thought this was due to the China/HK ban on Japanese seafood? Naturally, there would be excess supply domestically leading to lower prices.

  12. It was the season for it recently so maybe that’s it. Our last few pallets of it were a lot cheaper this month. That’s US frozen though

  13. Shame I can’t find any where I am in southern ma and the smallest container of flying roe is a $30 big ass one….I just want small containers so I can freeze and use

  14. Because Japan dumped Filtered Radioactive Waste water back into the Ocean. Fish Farmers/seafood Market lost all income and crashed overnight. Along with Band from China on all Japanese imported seafood. Unsure if it’s political, because USA deemed it ‘safe’ no clue

  21. Mainland China and Hong Kong are the largest and second largest importers of Japanese seafood. Both markets are affected by the Chinese ban on import of Japanese seafood after the Fukushima waste water release, thus severely reducing demand for Japanese seafood.

  22. It is? Fuck, I should be going out for sushi more often. Salmon roe is one of my favorites.

  23. It’s a culmination of a lot of things. The catch this season was far higher than anticipated across the majority of salmon available for fishing this year. But the major blame goes to players like Russia and China for overfishing and flooding the markets with cheap salmon. In a single week they caught what the entire United States was projected to catch for the entire 2023 season.

    This resulted in a lot of canneries ending the season 2-4 weeks earlier than they anticipated. It’s not looking very good for salmon right now.

    In terms of my knowledge on this, I was one of the last guys out of Alaska for this salmon season. It was a fucking roller coaster this year.

  24. I personally prefer ikura that’s been marinated in Shoyu/sake. I went to Las Vegas recently after coming from Japan and noticed that the all you can eat sushi bar had unlimited ikura. I was so surprised I ordered a bunch since it is one of the pricier dishes in Japan (akin to otoro and uni). I ate a few and couldn’t handle the pure saltiness. Did some research and learned that the ikura served in Japan is usually marinated in Shoyu/sake

  26. Salmon this year has exploded from what I heard, there’s more than what they could normally bring and with a over abundance of salmon the price is low

  28. Weird. I just noticed a 50% price rise on roe this weekend in Norway. Small jar was nok56, and now it’s nok76

  29. I think a lot of the Chinese market ia turned off since Japan said they will be selling fish from the nuclear plant incident from years ago

  30. Depends on how many salmon that were caught in Hokkaido, Alaska, Russia. Lots of fish mower price

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