Speech by Mr. Kazuhiko Wada, President, Kamewa Shouten Co., Ltd.
My name is Kazuhiko Wada. I’m the third-generation president of Kamewa Shouten, a wholesale fish company which has been based in Tsukiji Fish Market since 1938. We supply fresh and frozen seafood mainly to hotels and restaurants in Tokyo. More than 800 wholesale distributors work out of Tsukiji fish market, and more than 300 deal exclusively in tuna. Every morning they buy 200 tons tuna at auction. Kamewa does not deal exclusively in tuna. But we still receive a lot of orders for tuna, accounting for 4% of our sales. In April 2006, we became the first company in Japan to receive MSC Chain of Custody certification. At that time, I regret to say that Japanese consumers knew nothing about the state of global fish stocks or the MSC logo mark. For a company like ours, the depletion of fish stocks is a matter of life or death. That is why I made up my mind to do whatever I can to make people more aware of the MSC certification system. I even developed rice crackers using MSC king salmon. My feeling was that having made this commitment, I might as well go all the way. There’s a Japanese saying for this. 毒をくらわば皿までHere's a rough translation: “If you’re going to eat poisoned food, you might as well eat the dish the food is served on”. Restaurant Fontaine has prepared a delicious feast for us today. This includes 4 MSC products. King salmon and Coho salmon provided by Kamewa Shouten, Pacific cod provided by Watarai, and Pollack roe provided by Maruichi Foods. And trust me − they are free of poison. But no matter how good they taste, be sure not to eat the dishes. Since Kamewa was the first company in Japan to receive an MSC certificate, we were lucky to be featured on television and in the papers. And that has helped us to widen our circle of friends and contacts. Without the MSC, I would never have met the distinguished members of RFMOs at this party organized by the WWF. And of course the WWF would not have bought any king salmon from us. As I see it, my role is to help promote the MSC and what it stands for in Japan. In that sense, I believe I have a lot in common with the giant panda in raising public awareness. In 1998, Kamewa began importing Alaska Salmon from the noted fisherman Bruce Gore. This is because I was deeply impressed by the quality of his products. The quality comes from his troll fishing, and by processing and freezing the fish at sea. After several years of business with him, I came to realize that the superior quality of Bruce’s salmon was also linked with the strict control of fish stocks in the State of Alaska. In waters where IUU fishing is very common, fishermen cannot concentrate on quality improvement. A major breakthrough came last year in November when Japan’s largest supermarket chain AEON achieved CoC certification. I’ve also been greatly encouraged by the new year speeches made by VIPs of Japan’s fishing industry, including Mr. Isao Nakasu, the president of the Japan Fisheries Association. Each and every one of them has vowed to give top priority to promoting sustainable fishing. This commitment is bound to help MSC products spread in Japan. Japanese consumers may not be able to monitor IUU fishing on the open seas, but they do have a choice of buying environmentally friendly sustainable seafood. I sincerely hope that the MSC initiative will help your efforts to promote the sustainable fishing of tuna. I wish you the very best in your efforts, and I hope that this meeting will help achieve even greater results. Next time, I am confident that we will be serving MSC tuna to you. Thank you very much for your time.