Increasing the Value of Farm-Raised Fish, Opening Up the Future of the Fishery Industry with the Power of IT

The development of Mikan Fish was initiated to solve problems in the agriculture, forestry and fishing industries. Mass disposal of the residue from orange juice production was an issue in Ehime Prefecture, and they were seeking effective ways to reuse it. According to a study, orange peels contain polyphenols that can be utilized for preventing the browning of fish—a solution to a problem in the fishing industry. The Ehime Research Institute of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries was conducting research on this.

It was found that browning can be prevented by feeding orange peels to fish for about two weeks. In addition, there was the unpredicted effect of adding an orange flavor to the fish.

At that time, the Ehime Research Institute of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries asked us to investigate if citrus-flavored fish would be accepted by consumers. We immediately experimented with about 15 fish in a fish pond. They were then offered to customers and our employees. Nearly 90% of them said, “Nobody will buy such a strange fish.” However, remaining 10% of them,mostly women and children said it was less fishy and easy to eat.

We introduced the fish to various companies, saying, “We have an interesting fish.” A major revolving sushi restaurant showed interest and immediately ordered 7,000. We had raised 15 fish as samples, but there were many uncertainties for commercial cultivation in a fish preserve, including the rate of leftover feed and the required period to add flavor to the fish. The fish would definitely sell if the flavor was successfully added, yet there also was a risk. Under such circumstances, Nakata Suisan was the first to volunteer to do this.

Offering Mikan Fish with the Hope that it will make fish more popular

Farm-raised fish are fed live food, which causes the fishy smell. For the Mikan Fish, the limonene in orange peels works as a deodorizer and masks the fishy smell. As a part of our activities to promote farm-raised fish, we welcome field trips by elementary schools. If there are no opportunities to eat good fish in childhood, then subsequent generations will naturally not eat fish. We believe that having children eat fish will boost fish consumption in Japan.

Young people perhaps don’t even know about jobs in fish cultivation and fisheries. Fishery work is referred to as one of the 3D jobs (Dirty, Dangerous and Demeaning). However, like in our company, there are jobs for coordinating fish-related projects to accommodate requests from customers, including feed improvement and forming partnerships with the other companies’ plants, rather than doing physical work. We provide information through our blog in order to convey information about fish cultivation jobs.

In Japan, farm-raised fish are not highly valued compared with wild-caught fish. On the contrary, in Europe, farm-raised fish are highly valued, because they can be sustainably produced and are safe. Farm-raised fish are under human control with a known history, such as what they were fed and what type of cultivation environment was used.

Furthermore, today’s fishery industry is largely automated with IT, and I think it’s entering into an interesting phase. Soon, rearing young fish and feeding will be entirely manipulated, artificially controlling the cultivation environment. I believe this will lead to a stable fish production and supply while maintaining high quality, just like industrial products. The industry can be further developed by exerting intelligence and technology, I think.

Innovating Without Fearing Risks, Creating Smiles with Oranges and Fish

I never forget the shock of when I first ate a sample of Uwajima Project’s Mikan Fish—“My mouth is full of citrus flavor! I’ve never had such fish before!”

Nobody knew what would happen to the fish by adding orange to their feed. It might cause major damage if all the fish died. So all the companies vacillated over raising the Mikan Fish. I also considered the risks, but I thought, “If we are going to do this, it won’t be fun unless we are the first ones to start,” so I was the first one to raise my hand.

At first, we had a hard time because the fish didn’t eat much feed containing orange. We experimented with different orange varieties, including satsuma mandarin, Kawachi Bankan, amanatsu, and dekopon. Now, we mainly use iyokan, which adds the most flavor. We also tested the percentage of orange in the feed, and found that fish don’t eat it when the orange concentration is greater than 35%.

It was hard to maintain the flavor at a constant level. We heard complaints that the citrus flavor is less pronounced during winter, since fish only eat about five bowls. A few years ago, we began using “iyokan oil,” extracted from orange peels, during winter. This enabled us to obtain a constant flavor throughout the year.

Further Development of Fish with a Desire to Raise the Best Fish

Currently we sell 200,000 regular bream and 100,000 Mikan Bream. We aim to increase Mikan Bream shipments to around 150,000. For this, we need to make people aware of how tasty Mikan Bream is and increase the number of regular customers.

We currently ship to Hong Kong and are going to start shipping to Dubai. We would like to continue to develop tasty and mind-blowing fish that stimulate the appetites of younger generations, and will expand our product line with higher brand-value fish like Mikan Bream.