Source: The Portugal News
Tons of tuna that is freshly caught off the coast of Olhão, in the eastern Algarve is exported every week to Japan where it is served raw in restaurants as sushi.
The Algarve’s coast is on the migratory route of the Bluefin tuna, one of the most savored fish for sushi, with specimens up to almost 200kg being caught by the company Tunipex.
This company, managed by Japanese expat Hirofumi Moriwaka, became part of the Japanese company Arai Soji in 1994 and for now is the only one specializing in catching tuna with nets in Portuguese waters, although there are other projects in the Algarve.
The netting structure is located four kilometers from the coast, in front of Fuseta in Olhão, and it is in those nets that around 10 tons of tuna are caught each week, depending on the time of year.
Despite the amount caught, hardly any of it is sold in Portugal, with 90 percent of production being exported, 68 percent of which goes to Japan, 12 percent to the US and the rest to other European countries.
Having lived in the Algarve since 1995, Hirofumi Moriwaka explained to Lusa News Agency that Arai Soji carried out a viability study for four years before developing a partnership with Tunipex in the Algarve.
“We thought the Algarve would be a good investment, because everyone knew that the region had a strong tradition of catching tuna, considering it of very good quality,†he said.
If the capture of tuna was a business with great potential 50 years ago in the Algarve, none of the netting structures dedicated to catching the species in the past matched up to those of today.
In 1972, the last supporting business to the tuna nets that of Arraial Ferreira Neto in Tavira closed, later being transformed in a hotel.
More than 20 years passed until the activity was started again in Olhão, where 40 Portuguese and three Japanese staff work on the Tunipex nets.
Although tuna is a valuable species, it is not the only one to be caught by Tunipex, where a further 120 species, many from the tuna family, are also caught.