.comment-link {margin-left:.6em;}

David @ Tokyo

Perspective from Japan on whaling and whale meat, a spot of gourmet news, and monthly updates of whale meat stockpile statistics

5/31/2009

 

Whale meat inventory update - March 2009


*** UPDATED 2009/05/31
***

Tena koe everyone, again struggling to make time at the moment but here's a brief update for the March figures that were released last Friday.

March was again not a good month if you are looking for big decreases in existing inventory, but if you are an anti-whaling propaganda merchant then it's time to put your hat on and go to town as the inventory volumes will be peaking around about now or with the April figures.

March 2009 outgoing stock: 278 tons

Again - another low figure for outgoing inventory. Just 51% compared with the prior year month.

March 2009 incoming stock: 1,861 tons

This month is clearly unusual, and the regional stockpile breakdown figures included in the Ministry's release show that Tokyo's inventory increased by a net of 1,645 tons for the month. Didn't see it in the media (may have missed it), but the JARPA II fleet's supply vessel appears to have returned to Japan during the month of March, and unloaded perhaps as much as 1,750 tons of whale meat by-product in facilities in the Tokyo region. As always, note that this new inventory does get made available for sale on the market until early summer however (and some of it gets set aside for public purposes).

March 2009 end-of-month inventories: 4,402 tons

A 56% increase from February indicates that the previous month's inventory level of 2,819 tons is likely to be a low for 2009.

* * *

Will look to get back to this with graphs etc if the time presents itself - maybe on the weekend.

* * *

---- UPDATE 2009/05/31
----

Almost June, and the April figures will be out in on the 10th, but here are some of my regular items.

March 2009 top inventory regions

Region
Stockpile size at
month end
Stockpile size at
previous month end
Movement
Tokyo city wards2,9121,267+1,645
Ishinomaki601590+11
Funabashi310318-8
Nagasaki134152-18
Shimonoseki123121+2
Kushiro4853-5
Sasebo4857-9

Graph: Inventory ratio

The inventory ratio spike continued in March.

Graph: Annual volumes


Graph: Monthly volumes


Graph: Outgoing stock (cumulative)

This year sees outgoing inventory figures the weakest they have been in some years.

Graph: Incoming stock (cumulative)

On the incoming stock side 2009 is shaping up to be second only to 2006, but we'll have a better idea once the April figures are released.

Graph: Regional whale meat inventories

Around half of the inventory shown here in the Tokyo figures was not for sale as of March month-end, and won't be until sometime in June or July.
Funabashi's seemingly static inventory levels remain a mystery.

Labels:


Comments: Post a Comment



<< Home

Archives

June 2004   July 2004   August 2004   September 2004   October 2004   November 2004   December 2004   January 2005   March 2005   April 2005   May 2005   June 2005   July 2005   August 2005   September 2005   October 2005   November 2005   December 2005   January 2006   February 2006   March 2006   April 2006   May 2006   June 2006   July 2006   August 2006   September 2006   October 2006   November 2006   December 2006   January 2007   February 2007   March 2007   April 2007   May 2007   June 2007   July 2007   August 2007   September 2007   October 2007   November 2007   December 2007   January 2008   February 2008   April 2008   May 2008   June 2008   July 2008   August 2008   September 2008   October 2008   November 2008   December 2008   January 2009   February 2009   March 2009   April 2009   May 2009   June 2009   July 2009   August 2009   September 2009   October 2009   November 2009   January 2010   February 2010   April 2010   May 2010   June 2010   July 2010   August 2010   September 2010   February 2011   March 2011   May 2013   June 2013  

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?