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Serious about seafood
The sound of the bell immediately
transformed the atmosphere of the
small auction area from one of calm
relaxation into one that meant business.
A mass of bidders quickly huddled
around a man who, a few seconds
before, had jumped up hurriedly
onto a crate but was now looking
commandingly over the assembled
crowd. He launched into what appeared
to be one long, endless shout, with the
occasional short, sharp scream thrown
in for good measure. Hands darted
up in the air while the man screamed
some more. The auction had begun.
And it was still dark outside.
The Osaka Central Wholesale
Market first opened for business in 1931
in Osaka’s Noda district, and is one
of three wholesale markets located
throughout the city. Two of the markets,
including the one at Noda, trade in fish,
fruit and vegetables, while the other
deals exclusively with meat products.
The masses of food traded here every
day end up in restaurants and stores
throughout central Japan’s Kansai
region, and far beyond too.
According to UN data, Japan is
the biggest national importer of fish
in the world. Fish imports in 2009
were valued at around US$13 billion,
with domestic production totaling in
the region of 5 million tons. Japan’s
love affair with seafood goes way
back — with most of the land covered
in mountains, it was never easy to rear
cattle for meat production. So being an
island nation, the country fished the
surrounding waters instead.
The role of the Central Wholesale
Market is to bring to one place all the
fish, fruit and vegetables from national
and global producers, and to ensure
it’s sold on to intermediary wholesalers
and retailers at a fair price via auctions
held throughout the market each
morning. There are so many auctions
taking place on the premises that you
should easily be able to catch more
than a few as you explore the market.
According to UN data, Japan is the
biggest national importer of fish in the
world. Fish imports in 2009 were valued
at around US$13 billion
From top: All eyes on
the auctioneer; some
fish varieties can sell for
thousands of dollars.
09LKH Smile
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