Japan’s young eel imports from Hong Kong surge

>> TOKYO: Japan’s imports of young eels from Hong Kong surged in February after the new fishing season started with a low catch, according to the Finance Ministry’s trade statistics.

But as Hong Kong does not engage in eel fishing, industry observers say the eels are likely to have been smuggled from Taiwan.

Japan imported 2,634 kilogrammes of young eels from Hong Kong in February, triple the 874kg imported in January and over 10 times the 257kg in December last year, according to the trade data.

The eels start their spawning migration in the waters of East Asia and are designated as a species at risk of extinction by the Environment Ministry and the International Union for Conservation of Nature due to deteriorating habitat conditions and overfishing.

The transaction price of young eels was 3.85 million yen (1.1 million baht) per kilogramme in February. Taiwan suffered from poor catches of young eels late last year but has seen them rise since.

Hong Kong started exporting young eels to Japan in 2007 after Taiwan banned exports the same year.

It is widely known that many young eels from Hong Kong are caught in Taiwan, according to Yasuhiro Sanada, an associate professor at Waseda University.

“We should be extremely concerned” that by importing young eels from Hong Kong, Japan could be seen as helping smuggling, which prevents young eels’ conservation, he said.

Calls could grow for protecting young eels under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, also known as the Washington Convention, Mr Sanada added.