Wild eel fry would not be replaced by farm-raised eel fry for at least the next five years, National Taiwan University fisheries science professor Han Yu-san (韓玉山) said on Sunday.
Japanese officials last week said that fully farm-raised eels would become commercially available in Japan for the first time by the end of this month.
They also said that advances in breeding methods had helped bring the price down to ￥1,800 (US$11.33) per fry.
Photo: Yang Chin-cheng, Taipei Times
Taiwanese fishers call wild eel fry manjin (鰻金, “eel gold”) for their economic value.
Japan has been Taiwan’s primary export market for eel fry, which can be caught only from November to February each year.
Eel exports to Japan accounted for 306 tonnes of last year’s total export volume of 347 tonnes, Ministry of Agriculture data showed.
Japan, South Korea and Taiwan are the only countries that have developed artificial breeding methods for eels, Han said, adding that Taiwan in 2004 hatched eel larvae from eggs in a laboratory.
However, the high costs of cultivating eel fry and the complexity of the required aquaculture equipment make it difficult for farm-raised fry to compete with wild-caught fry, he said.
Although Japan said that its farmed eel fry cost ￥1,800 per fry, down from more than ￥1 million, such fry would be sold at a loss and be difficult to mass-produce, Han said.
He said the price of each farm-raised Japanese eel fry would need to be 10 times higher for producers to break even, if the costs of research and development, as well as equipment, were included and amortized.
Although they are much more expensive than wild eel fry, farm-raised fry enable producers to control the production season and volume, Han said.
The price of wild Taiwanese eel fry captured over the latest season from November last year to February had initially been expected to be about NT$200 each, he said.
It declined during the season, falling to a low of NT$5 per fry, he said, adding that the season’s average price was NT$30 to NT$50 per fry.
That means Japan’s farm-raised eel fry would have to be priced at less than NT$50 to substitute for their wild-caught counterparts, he said.
“Even in the most optimistic scenario, farm-raised eel fry would not fully replace wild fry within the next five to 10 years,” Han said.
Taiwan is also seeking to reduce the cost of raising farmed eel fry, he said.
The eel industry’s future hinges on which of the three countries with artificial eel-breeding techniques can lower costs and boost quality, he said, adding that Taiwan stands a good chance of meeting that challenge.
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