Recently, the Ministry of Finance of Japan announced the statistics of eel imports and exports in the Japanese market in March 2025 (including live eels, kabayaki unagi, and eel fry). The data showed that 2,200 tons of grilled eels were imported into the Japanese market in March, all from mainland China, an increase of 54% compared with last month. In terms of price, the average price of imported grilled eels in March was 2,476 yen/kg, a slight decrease of 28 yen year-on-year and a decrease of 224 yen month-on-month. Although the price is a little decreased, with the high cost performance, Chinese mainland grilled eel still has a strong market in Japan.
Compared with last 5 years, the eel imports volumes in March is secondary to the same period of 2023. Japanese has imported 9163tons grilled eel from September 2024 to March 2025, increase 30.8% year-on-year. It's just a little secondary of the same period of 2022, with 9835tons. It can be seen the popularity of Chinese grilled eel.
As the fishing season is coming to the end, Japanese market will come to the consuming peak season of eel this summer. Therefore, many guys from Japanese trading companies think the situation, the import volume skyrocketed, in March is quiet normal.