Emart Introduces 'Half-Price' Tuna Sashimi... Largest Scale Ever

[Asia Economy Reporter Seungjin Lee] Emart has stepped up to help tuna fishermen who are struggling with sluggish exports and domestic sales.

Emart announced on the 4th that from the 5th to the 11th, it will offer assorted tuna sashimi caught in distant waters at half the average selling price for one week. The assorted tuna sashimi consists of 180g of fatty belly meat and 180g of lean meat from bigeye tuna, a premium species.

For this event, Emart prepared a record-breaking 35 tons of tuna. Considering that Emart’s annual tuna sashimi sales volume is about 140 tons, this means they prepared about three months’ worth of sales volume for the one-week event.

The reason Emart is offering tuna sashimi at half price is that tuna exports have sharply declined due to worsening trade relations with Japan and the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), putting tuna fishermen in difficulty.

Japan is the world’s largest tuna consumer, consuming about 80% of global tuna production. However, with the deterioration of trade relations with Japan since July last year, South Korea’s tuna exports to Japan in August 2019 decreased by 31% compared to the previous year.

Additionally, the recent spread of COVID-19 led Japan to ban 'truck combined transport,' a method where cargo is loaded onto trucks and shipped without changing vehicles, causing a further decline in exports. South Korea had a relatively high proportion of 'truck combined transport' due to its proximity to Japan.

Decreased tuna consumption due to sluggish domestic demand is also a concern. The culture of refraining from dining out and company dinners due to COVID-19 has hindered smooth volume consumption.

Yoo Byung-gil, Emart’s sashimi buyer, said, “With ongoing difficulties from poor tuna exports to Japan and decreased domestic consumption, we planned this event to create an opportunity for a turnaround. We will continue to provide opportunities to offer high-quality tuna sashimi at reasonable prices and strive to coexist with tuna fishermen.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.