News

The South Australian Government has today met with leading Japanese importers of our state’s Southern Bluefin Tuna, backing in local exporters of the world’s cleanest, highest quality fish while in Tokyo on a trade mission.

Discussions held at the world’s largest seafood market, Tokyo’s Toyosu Fish Market, have championed our local exporters and South Australian Southern Bluefin Tuna to ensure the state’s relationship with Japanese importers remains strong.

The trade mission is providing an opportunity to further leverage the South Australian Government’s $475,000 Seafood Export Growth Program, which is focused on market diversification and activation to support exporters of Southern Bluefin Tuna and other seafood species. A key pillar of the program is supporting SA seafood exporters to attend major international trade events, including next year’s World Expo in Osaka. South Australia is a Gold Sponsor of the Australia Pavilion at the Osaka Expo, and will feature Southern Bluefin Tuna in event menus, food sampling and cooking shows, video promotion and Japanese retail giant Rakuten sales promotions.

The South Australian Government is further supporting the industry through a Tuna Meister program, which involves well-known Japanese chefs creating menus using Southern Bluefin Tuna for their restaurants, at-home recipes for supermarkets and the Cook-Pad recipe site, and sharing on social media.

South Australia exported more than 6,000 tonnes of tuna to Japan in the year ending August 2024, valued at $58 million, the majority frozen with a small quantity fresh or chilled. Local exporters also sold 124 tonnes of oysters and molluscs valued at almost $5 million in the same time period.