(seafood.com) At its annual general meeting in Tokyo on June 25, the Japan Kamaboko Association elected Akihiro Suzuki as its new president, succeeding Kimiho Kotani, who stepped down after serving the full presidency term of six years.
(Kamaboko is a typical traditional fish surimi product well established in the Japanese diet. Kamaboko makers are major customers of surimi from the Alaska pollock producers.)
Suzuki, also president of Suzuhiro Kamaboko Co., a major kamaboko producer, said there is still a potential for the growth of sales of kamaboko in Japan.
The most important task now facing kamaboko makers in Japan is to uncover new demand for surimi products, especially among young consumers amid the current trend toward an aging society in Japan.
As the goal for fiscal 2012, the Kamaboko Association will step up sales promotion and publicity in a bid to boost demand for surimi products in the consumer market.
It will also strive to ensure stable procurement of raw material surimi both in domestically and overseas.
As a specific step to be taken to prop up the kamaboko market, Suzuki emphasized that the industry should make effort to let general consumers know the close linkage between kamaboko and good-quality protein--a fact not yet widely appreciated in Japan.
He suggested that all makers should indicate in their all the products that kamaboko is rich in high-quality protein.
If all of the kamaboko makers throughout Japan—numbering around 900-- take this approach, publicity on the good health effects of kamoboko will certainly be much enhanced, he said.
Suzuki also said the association should strain its wit on how to expand the use of kamaboko in wider varieties of cuisine.
The association has so far accumulated huge amount of knowledge on the functionality of kamaboko. How effectively the industry can utilize this reserve of knowledge will be the key to activate demand for kamaboko and other surimi products, Suzuki said.
(Based on the Nikkan Suisan Keizai Shimbun)