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Big overseas demand for Sri Lanka`s Yellow fin tuna
Tuesday, 26 February 2008 - 7:46 AM SL Time
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Sri Lanka has reaped profits from the migratory yellow fin tuna fish exports during the past three years and an increase in the domestic price can be experienced in the coming months, as there was a high demand for it in the export market, Minster of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Felix Perera told The Island yesterday (25).
`We are exporting this special variety to Japan and the European markets but we still do not have the proper mechanism to get the maximum catch out of this resource. Only around 20 to 24 Board of Investment approved firms export this variety of tuna fish,`the minister said.
He said though there were around 2,600 fishing vessels, only 300 have the capability to catch yellow fin tuna. The Fisheries Ministry s two long line vessels too had helped to increase the fish harvest.
Japanese use this tuna fish to make Shashmi, a special dish. They slice the raw fish and soak it in a special sauce which is very expensive. Also, the value added exports of fish loin and fillet also brings a better price, the minister said.
A kilogram of yellow fin tuna fish was bought at a price of 500 rupees or more and sometimes it increases to 1000 rupees. Therefore an entire fish sometimes fetches 80,000 or 100,000 rupees and fishermen could even buy a car with a catch of two or three yellow fin fish, the minister said.
In Japan one gram of Shashmi is priced at 1.5 dollars or around 150 rupees. The per capita consumption of fish in Japan is more than 24 kilograms and Sri Lanka s per capita consumption is around 14 to 16 kilograms, the minister said.
The total export revenue of fisheries products for the years 2005 and 2006 was 6.4 billion rupees and the growth in 2007 was 2.6 billion rupees over the previous year the minister noted.
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