A 60 percent price hike for sashimi-grade salmonids in 2014 pushed down Japan’s imports of frozen trout from Chile by around 30 percent year-on-year to 37,500 metric tons in 2014.
This decrease in imports accelerated in 2015 with 16,400 metric tons for the first seven months, 15 percent less than the same period last year.
Atlantic salmon from Norway, on the other hand, has seen favorable sales in the form of fresh fillets -- Japan’s imports reached 10,000 metric tons in 2014, compared to below 1,000 metric tons 10 years ago.
Meanwhile, frozen salmon imports have halved to less than 30,000 metric tons in a decade.