FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 70, NO. 2 



Quotas for individual items are determined 

 through consultations between the Ministry of 

 Trade and the Fishery Agency of the Ministry 

 of Agriculture and Forestry. The former nor- 

 mally presses for liberalization while the latter 

 tends to resist it. In the case of fish meal im- 

 ports, there is a conflict within the Ministry of 

 Agriculture and Forestry, namely between the 

 Fishery Agency and the Livestock Bureau, since 

 the poultry and livestock industries in Japan 

 want complete decontrol of fish meal imports. 



Import duties on fishery products are in prin- 

 ciple 10 9r on fresh and frozen items, 15% on 

 salted and smoked items, and 20% on canned 

 and related items. Duties on many AA items 

 have been reduced gradually under the Kennedy 

 Round system. 



Further import decontrol is highly desirable 

 and almost inevitable. Fish meal imports are 

 due to be decontrolled, to a large extent, in the 

 near future. The present plan is to determine, 

 through consultations between the Fishery 

 Agency and the Livestock Bureau, the amount 

 of meal to be imported duty free, and to tax 

 heavily any additional imports (in the neighbor- 

 hood of $56 a ton) . The effects of this measure 

 will depend largely on the amount to be fixed for 

 duty-free imports. If the quantity determined 

 is high enough, the net effect will be almost com- 

 plete decontrol. If, on the other hand, the amount 

 is adjusted to protect domestic manufacturers, 

 the situation will not be too different from what 

 it is now. 



A further step which should be considered is 

 the relaxation of restrictions on pollack imports. 

 The Soviet Union now produces a large quantity 

 of pollack (mainly in waters off Kamchatka), 

 598,000 metric tons in 1969 as compared with 

 1,944,000 tons caught by Japan. (Including the 

 North Korean catch, the total yield of Pacific 

 pollack probably exceeded 3 million tons in 

 1970.) Presumably, most of the Russian pol- 

 lack catch goes into fish meal. If the Soviet 

 Union can export pollack to Japan for surimi 

 manufacturing, the value of the Soviet catch 

 would increase very substantially. The Japa- 

 nese government allows the import of raw 

 material for fish meal, practically all pollack, 

 within a global quota of 45,000 metric tons. Al- 



though it is a global quota, the only country 

 that can export pollack to Japan is the Soviet 

 Union. A further strict condition is attached 

 to pollack imports: fish must be processed into 

 fish meal, fish oil, and solubles aboard Japanese 

 ships before entering Japan. Initially, even pro- 

 duction of pollack roe was prohibited, but this 

 restriction was removed later. For the last 7 

 years, pollack have been purchased in west Kam- 

 chatka, the main Soviet fishing area, and pro- 

 cessed on a Japanese factoryship. The price has 

 been increasing gradually, and the Japanese 

 company conducting this operation has been re- 

 questing the government to allow production of 

 surimi, but this has not been approved. It is 

 very difficult to understand why the processing 

 of only 45,000 tons of pollack into surimi would 

 do any harm to Japanese fishing companies or 

 processors. 



The basic question here is far beyond that of 

 manufacturing a small amount of surimi under 

 the present quota. Pollack fishing for surimi 

 production is now the mainstay of the Japanese 

 distant-water trawl fisheries. Demand for sur- 

 imi is strong, and the pollack catch is going to 

 level off sooner or later. Further intensification 

 of Hokutensen fishing and Soviet fishing, and the 

 expected expansion of the Korean fleet, will re- 

 sult in a sharp increase in fishing intensity in 

 Kamchatka and North Kurile waters. Catch 

 limits will become necessary, and I would not be 

 surprised if the Soviet Union pressed for them 

 in the near future. In the long run, it would be 

 beneficial to Japan to increase, if necessary grad- 

 ually, the purchase of pollack from the Soviet 

 Union for surimi production. It would help meet 

 growing demand; the value added in processing 

 and marketing would be far greater than the 

 value of raw material realized by the Soviet 

 Union;" increased imports from the Soviet Union 

 would perhaps alleviate international fishery 

 problems between the two nations. It is not cer- 

 tain what South Korea will do with increasing 

 pollack catches. As pollack, processed into dry 

 fish, has always been highly valued in Korea 

 (both North and South), it is likely that the 



'" The Soviet Union may already be producing surimi 

 using imported Japanese equipment. 



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