Replacement for shark fins

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http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5g16X5iUrZe5AOk4lKCMOMoE7flvA

Fake fins eye saving sharks, Chinese wallets

 

2 days ago

 

TOKYO (AFP) — A Japanese company is launching fake shark fins in China,

hoping to tap a market as prices for real ones rise amid concerns the

species is being hunted to extinction.

 

Shark fin is considered one of the highest-end delicacies in Chinese cuisine

and also fetches high prices in select Japanese restaurants.

 

Nikko Yuba Seizo Co. a Japanese food-processing company, said it had

developed artificial shark fins made out of pork gelatin. Its top executives

returned Friday from a two-day trip to China to introduce the products.

 

" Shark fin prices have been rising constantly in recent years due to a fall

in the volume traded, so we decided to develop an artificial fin, " said

Tadashi Kozuka, a top official of the company which also trades real shark

fins imported from Indonesia, Brazil and elsewhere.

 

" We visited Shanghai and Dalian -- big cities where wealthy Chinese people

live -- to seek trading partners. I guess fins sell well among rich people, "

he said.

 

But he said the artificial version would also appeal to Chinese who would

not be able to afford the real fins, which are served as a luxury at

weddings and other important occasions.

 

Kozuka said the company had long queues of customers when it first presented

its product in China at a trade fair in June in the southern city of

Guangzhou.

 

The price of the gelatin-made fin costs only one-tenth of the real one, or

about 1,500 yen (15 dollars) per kilogram when sold wholesale, he said.

 

Controversy over China's appetite for shark's fin rose last year when the

country's most famous sports personality, basketball star Yao Ming, called

for a boycott of the dish to save the fish from extinction. Some species of

shark are now endangered.

 

Environmentalists have campaigned to stop " finning, " when fishermen catch

sharks and cut off their fins before throwing the carcasses back into the

sea. The practice is blamed for preventing an accurate picture of shark

numbers.