From Kyoto to Kansas City, it’s Indonesian tuna on the world’s sushi counters

Indonesia is the world’s largest tuna catching nation and accounted for 16 per cent of global production last year

Its largest market is the United States, which consumed nearly half of the country’s tuna catch last year, mostly as frozen whole fish or fillets

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A sushi chef prepares tuna sashimi at an upscale Japanese restaurant in New York. Photo: AFP

Published: 12:00pm, 19 Mar 2019Updated: 4:51pm, 20 Mar 2019

Workers at the East Java processing plant of Indonesian seafood supplier Bahari Biru Nusantara race every day to gut, fillet and freeze prized wild-caught fish for the world market.

Company director Hadi Wijaja says they can process 35 tonnes of fish a day, or 5,000 tonnes a year, inside the spacious facilities whose sanitary practices are registered internationally – including in the US, the EU, and Korea, where fish must reach while still fresh enough to be consumed raw.

An Indonesian fisherman unloads his catch of yellowfin tuna at Banda Aceh. Photo: AFP

Indonesia is the world’s largest producer of tuna, with an annual catch worth an estimated US$5 billion.

Roughly one in six tuna caught worldwide over the past three years came from Indonesia, which accounted for 16 per cent of world tuna production last year, director general of capture fisheries Zulficar Mochtar reported last month.

Its largest market is the United States, which consumed nearly half of Indonesia’s tuna catch last year, mostly as frozen whole fish or fillets. Indonesia’s tuna exports to the US have soared 130 per cent since 2014.