TOKYO –
Japan will start trial gross sales of the world’s first absolutely farmed eels for shoppers on May twenty ninth, marking a significant milestone for the aquaculture business as home eel costs have already fallen by about 40% from a yr earlier.
The so-called “fully farmed eel” refers to eels raised solely by human intervention from egg to maturity, not like standard farmed eel manufacturing, which depends on capturing wild juvenile glass eels referred to as “shirasu unagi” earlier than elevating them in captivity.
The trial gross sales, priced at 4,860 yen per eel, will start at 10 a.m. on May twenty ninth by Aeon Group’s on-line buying platform and at places together with Nihombashi Mitsukoshi Main Store. Quantities are restricted and gross sales will finish as soon as stock runs out.
Aeon and eel producer Yamada Suisan plan to conduct surveys on style and pricing as they search broader commercialization sooner or later.
The achievement comes after a long time of analysis into eel breeding, an space lengthy thought of tough as a result of a lot of the eel’s life cycle stays poorly understood.
About 20 years in the past, researchers had been solely capable of elevate between 10 and 100 eels yearly. Before reaching the glass eel stage, larvae required feeding 5 instances a day at two-hour intervals, whereas tanks needed to be cleaned day by day, pushing manufacturing prices per eel into the a whole lot of 1000’s and even hundreds of thousands of yen.
Advances in feed growth, automated feeding techniques, and mass-production tank know-how have since improved effectivity dramatically. Researchers can now elevate round 10,000 eels yearly, whereas manufacturing prices have reportedly fallen to about 1,800 yen per fish.
Industry observers say costs may decline additional if mass manufacturing turns into viable.
Meanwhile, standard eel costs have additionally been falling sharply on account of robust catches of untamed juvenile eels.
According to the Fisheries Agency, imported merchandise accounted for about 73% of Japan’s eel provide in 2024, whereas greater than 99% of processed eel merchandise akin to kabayaki had been imported from China.
The wholesale value of processed Chinese eel merchandise has fallen roughly 20% year-on-year, declining from 2,360 yen per kilogram in 2025 to 1,919 yen in 2026.
Shinya Matsuura, chairman of the Japan Eel Importers Association, mentioned the decline was pushed by the most important glass eel catch in 19 years final yr, with these fish now reaching the market. Lower gasoline and labor prices in international locations akin to China have additionally helped scale back costs.
Domestic eel costs have dropped much more sharply, falling about 40% from the identical interval final yr.
Wholesale costs for home eel fell from 5,307 yen in April 2025 to 2,983 yen in April 2026.
Kengo Matsumoto, consultant of eel wholesaler Unagi Donya Matsumoto, mentioned bumper catches of glass eels over two consecutive years starting in December 2024 had elevated provide, driving wholesale costs down by 30% to 40%.
Matsumoto added that as a result of summer season is the height gross sales season for eel eating places, retail costs at eating places might start falling round September.
He additionally famous that if absolutely farmed eel manufacturing turns into widespread, the worth of a domestically produced unaju meal may probably fall from the present 4,000-yen vary to round 2,000 yen, though present eel farmers may face important stress consequently.
Source: TBS