Royal Greenland Japan Ltd., marketing wing of the Danish government-affiliated fishing company Royal Greenland, aims to step up sales of raw northern shrimp in Japan, with its parent company shifting production away from cooked shrimp.
Northern shrimp catch in the Greenland area stood at about 114,500 tons in 2011, but dropped to 105,000 tons in 2012, with the prospect of a further decline to 90,000 tons in 2013. So Royal Greenland is increasing on-board production of raw shrimp at the expense of cooked. The company has a 45% of the offshore
quota in the area, operating three large-size trawlers in the offshore area, and six medium size vessels in the coastal area.
Northern shrimp is commonly consumed boiled in the Western countries, while only in Japan it is eaten raw. In the producing places, the decline of Japan's purchasing power immediately leads to a decrease in production of frozen products for raw consumption. For this reason, landed northern shrimp usually end
up boiled even when prices come back to reasonable levels for Japanese buyers. But now the company has changed its priorities
"We are a fishing company, so we know what fishermen can do or cannot do on their ships as well as what Japanese consumers want to buy," said Takaaku Shimoda, president of Royal Greenland Japan. "Based on our knowledge, we want to develop a system in which producers find it easy to produce the quality products desired by Japanese consumers," he added.
