Japan's seafood exports drop 46% in September as scallops slide
Japan exported 32,700 tonnes of seafood in September, 46% less by weight than a year earlier, while the value of those shipments slipped only 1% to ¥31.56 billion. The gap between the two numbers is the story. Volume collapsed. Price did not.
Scallops, Japan's highest-value shellfish export, fell 32% by volume to 4,368 tonnes and 25% by value to ¥8.85 billion, according to Ministry of Finance trade data reported by Minato Shimbun. The ministry's seafood total covers fish, shellfish, processed products and fish meal.
The Numbers
Total seafood exports, September 2026: 32,700 tonnes, down 46% year on year, worth ¥31.559 billion (about $199 million), down 1%.
Scallop exports: 4,368 tonnes, down 32%, worth ¥8.853 billion, down 25%.
Average scallop export value works out to about ¥2,030 per kilo, against roughly ¥1,840 a year earlier, an increase of around 10%.
Average value across all seafood exports works out to about ¥965 per kilo, against roughly ¥526 a year earlier. That figure is arithmetic across a mixed basket, not a claim about any single product.
Data: Japan Customs trade statistics, Ministry of Finance, September 2026 release.
What It Means for Buyers
A 46% drop in tonnage against a 1% drop in value is what a collapse in cheap bulk lines looks like. Fish meal and low-grade frozen fish carry a fraction of the per-kilo value of scallops or surimi, so a swing in those lines moves tonnage hard and value barely. If premium shellfish alone had driven the fall, the value line would have broken too. It did not.
The usable signal sits one level down. Scallop volume fell by a third while value fell by a quarter, which means the average price of what actually shipped went up, not down.
For importers running Japanese half-shell and frozen scallop programmes, that points to thinner offer books and firmer quotes into the first quarter. One month is a thin base for a trend, but the arithmetic is consistent with product being held back, redirected or committed elsewhere rather than simply not existing.
The practical response is to lock volume earlier than usual and to price the alternative at the same time. Chinese Chlamys nobilis half-shell, bay scallop meat and pen shell meat can carry a volume programme, but the swap is not like for like. Size grades, glaze percentage, count per pound and labelling all differ, and buyers who substitute without re-qualifying usually find out at the port.
Currency sits underneath all of this. A weak yen flatters the yen value of export receipts, so dollar offers for Japanese scallops have been climbing faster than the yen figures suggest. Anyone comparing a 2026 quote with a 2025 quote in yen is comparing two different currencies.
What to Watch
October and November ministry data, to see whether September was a one-month distortion or the start of a thinner export book.
Hokkaido landing volumes as the season builds, and whether product is moving into cold storage instead of into containers.
Any movement on China-bound Japanese seafood, which would reorder the destination mix quickly.
Yen levels, because a large part of the export price story is being written in the currency market rather than at the dock.
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This article was researched and drafted with the assistance of AI and is published for general information only. It does not constitute trading, pricing, or investment advice, and readers should verify all figures against the original sources linked above before making commercial decisions. Content on this page is partly AI-generated. Easy Seafood makes no warranty as to its accuracy or completeness.
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