Choshi Salmon Processing Industry Struggles As 20% Face Closure Due To Rising Import Costs
- Approximately 20% of salmon processing businesses in Choshi City have closed or are in de facto shutdown due to rising input costs.
- Over 80% of the raw salmon used in Choshi is imported, mainly from Norway.
- Rising raw material prices have significantly reduced the profitability of local processors.
- Local authorities are exploring ways to help the industry adapt or find alternative sources.
Pick up salted mackerel in a Taiwanese supermarket and the label usually says Norway. Processors in Choshi, Chiba Prefecture, bid for the same fish in the same market — and NHK reports that roughly 20% of the city's seafood processors have gone bankrupt or effectively shut down, because the imported mackerel that makes up most of their raw material has become too expensive to work with profitably.
The report gives no figure for the price increase or the number of firms, so none is added here. The 20% share is telling on its own: seafood processing runs on thin margins with high raw-material costs and limited pricing power against retailers. When input costs jump, margins do not shrink — they vanish.
Choshi is one of Japan's largest fishing ports, and its processing cluster was built on having fish at the door. As domestic catches weakened and processors switched to Norwegian supply, that advantage disappeared: the plants stayed put while the raw material went to global auction. At around ¥158 to the dollar, importers are squeezed from both price and currency.
Japan has been here with eel and saury. When supply cannot be repaired, the market does not wait for prices to fall — it replaces the demand. Watch Norwegian export quotas and auction prices, Japan's mackerel stock assessments, and the yen.
