News

Sustainable Pacific saury farming achieved with the Marine Science Museum, Fukushima Prefecture
Maruha Nichiro achieves breakthrough for commercial saury aquaculture

September 9, 2025

"Maruha Nichiro Corporation is proud to announce a major breakthrough in aquaculture with the successful trial farming of Pacific saury at a breeding density equivalent to full-scale commercial operations. This achievement was made possible through close collaboration with the Marine Science Museum, Fukushima Prefecture at the Maruha Nichiro Aquaculture Technology Development Center."

Wild-caught Pacific saury have grown increasingly scarce, with landings plummeting to just 20,000 tons in 2021, a decline of over 90% from 355,000 tons in 2008*1. Over the same period, wholesale prices per kilogram surged nearly tenfold, from ¥65 to ¥621*2, and at this year’s first auction in July at the Sapporo City Central Wholesale Market, the price soared to ¥889,000 per kilogram.

Rich in DHA and EPA and cherished in Japan as a prized autumn delicacy, saury is a promising candidate for farmed aquaculture.

The Maruha Nichiro Aquaculture Technology Development Center launched saury aquaculture research in October 2023 with the Marine Science Museum, Fukushima Prefecture. The museum, which had achieved the world’s first successful in-tank saury breeding, provided eggs and its advanced breeding techniques to the project.

The center has accumulated extensive aquaculture and R&D expertise from producing and cultivating artificial seedlings of bluefin tuna, yellowtail, amberjack, and red sea bream, and from countless trials and analyses to determine optimal feeding and breeding methods. In June 2024, the center achieved a major milestone with the successful cultivation of saury weighing over 100 grams, the preferred minimum weight to ensure healthy transport.

The center continues to build on this progress to advance technologies for commercialization, including the successful production of fish through artificial insemination in August last year.

Maruha Nichiro is combining its aquaculture expertise with the Marine Science Museum, Fukushima Prefecture’s biological knowledge to co-create technologies that will enable full-scale, sustainable commercial production of Pacific saury.

*1 Source: National Research and Development Agency, Japan Fisheries Research and Education Agency［Factors in Saury Landing Reduction］Sanma no furyou youin kaimei ni tuite(in japanese)
*2 Source: Fisheries Agency［Survey of Local Seafood Distribution］Sanchi suisan butsuryuu cyousa (in japanese)

Reference: Maruha Nichiro Aquaculture Operations History

• 1967 Started yellowtail breeding operations
• 1970 Started yellowtail farming in Kushi, Kagoshima Prefecture, and red sea bream aquaculture in Kitamatsuura, Nagasaki Prefecture
• 1974 Started red sea bream artificial hatching and seedling production in Kitamatsuura, Nagasaki Prefecture
• 1976 Started red sea bream farming in Amami Oshima, Kagoshima Prefecture
• 1985 Started the world’s first bluefin tuna aquaculture in Kashiwajima, Kochi Prefecture
• 1987 Started research in bluefin tuna artificial hatching aimed at egg-to-harvest aquaculture
• 2010 Became the first private company to achieve bluefin tuna egg-to-harvest aquaculture
• 2015 Started commercial shipments of egg-to-harvest bluefin tuna
• 2018 Obtained Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) certification for yellowtail
• 2019 Obtained the world’s first ASC certification for amberjack
• 2019 Started shipping Japan’s first egg-to-harvest bluefin tuna to Europe
• 2025 Started trial sales of cobia, our fourth aquaculture product with bluefin tuna, yellowtail, and amberjack