African nations top importers of mackerel from Korea
Most of Korea’s mackerel exports last year went to countries in Africa, according to the Korea Maritime Institute (KMI), Tuesday.
The countries with the most outstanding mackerel imports were Ghana, Nigeria and Ivory Coast. During the fourth quarter of last year, they accounted for 70.5 percent of Korea’s mackerel exports overall. Throughout the year, the three imported more than 60 percent of Korea’s entire fish exports.
The African countries contributed to boosting Korea’s mackerel exports last year from the previous year. Korea exported $167 million worth of frozen mackerel in 2023, a 63 percent year-onyear increase from 2022, when the figure was $65.5 million.
The Busan Cooperative Fish Market, a private organization for the consignment sale of 80 percent of mackerel caught in Korean waters, sold 152,000 tons of the fish last year, a figure way above the organization’s goal of 140,000 tons. The sales performance was also a record figure for the cooperative in the last seven years.
A KMI official said the African countries started importing Korean mackerel in large quantities because Russia and Japan were no longer fishing in sufficient volumes. Russia tripped on mackerel exports after the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war prompted international trade organizations to place sanctions on the country to tighten its financial channels.
Japan, meanwhile, after controversially starting to discharge the stored treated radioactive water of the destroyed Fukushima nuclear power plant, restricted local fishermen’s activities, plunging the country’s volume of not just mackerel but also other netted fish.
Two-thirds of all mackerel caught in Korean waters are blue mackerel, also known as the Japanese mackerel. They are not popular with Korean consumers, who mostly like eating larger-sized imported mackerel from Norway. Blue mackerel often becomes an ingredient in animal feed.
But consumption of Korean blue mackerel spiked last year due to the African countries purchases.
“While Koreans usually enjoy eating large-size Norwegian mackerels by pan-frying them or boiling them in a spicy stew, people in African countries like to smoke them,” a KMI official said. “To African people, small and affordable blue mackerel from Korean waters were just fine.”