2010 Volume 51 Issue 1 Pages 19-42
This paper studies current significance and implications of the local consumption of locally produced products (regional subsistence system) in the fish paste processing industry. The Nagasaki district is selected as the most typical case in this system.
The Nagasaki Fish Meat Paste Association supplies the materials (mainly red fish meat paste by using horse mackerel or sardines) produced at the Associations factory and supplies the imported one to the members of the Nagasaki district.
Red meat fish paste is a highly competitive product compared with white meat fish paste, which is made of demersal fishes from trawl fisheries both within the country and abroad. As a result, the Association and small fish paste factories in the Nagasaki district established a system of the local consumption of locally produced products against globalized fish paste industry.
However, since the late 1980s, relatively big factory in this area started producing a large quantity of fried-fish paste, expanding the market outside of Nagasaki Prefecture and out of Kyushu. Such exchange of the fish paste industry in the Nagasaki district causes the difficulties such as in short supply of red meat fishes and unfamiliar taste for new customer in the marketing. For this reason, the Association and its members enforce the use of under-utilized fishes, the requirement of brand orientation, and education for fish eating together with the local government.
