Fishery trading house J-Trading Inc. and investment firm Integral Corp. have bought Croatian tuna-farming firm Kali Tuna for ¥4 billion, industry sources said Monday.
Kali Tuna is the biggest cultivator of bluefin tuna in the Adriatic Sea. The Tokyo-based trading house intends to procure the fish for sushi and to sell in Europe and the United States, the sources said.
The Fisheries Agency says some 60 percent of bluefin tuna consumed in Japan are caught in the Pacific Ocean and the rest come from the Atlantic Ocean.
There are restrictions on bluefin catches in the Pacific because their numbers are being threatened by overfishing. But in the eastern Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, their numbers are recovering. This prompted the relaxation of catch restrictions earlier in the year.
Kinki University, known as a cultivator of bluefin, and Toyota Tsusho Corp. plan to expand production under the Kindai Tuna brand. Kindai is another version of Kinki University's name.
Toyo Reizo Co., a subsidiary of trading house Mitsubishi Corp., procures and cultivates Kindai tuna and ships the meat under the Tuna Princess brand.