TOKYO: Trout roe is becoming popular in Japan as an alternative to autumn salmon roe, which is in short supply and surging in prices due to a record poor catch this season.

Salmon is the most popular type of fish for “ikura” fish roe, but trout roe is similar in shape yet cheaper.

The Toyosu wholesale food market in Tokyo is seeing a large volume of trout shipments this year thanks to a bountiful catch in Russia, the main habitat of the fish.

While trout eggs are smaller than those of autumn salmon caught in Hokkaido, northernmost Japan, intermediary wholesaler Yoshizen Co. praised the trout roe at Toyosu as “being comparable to salmon roe in its melt-in-your-mouth texture and rich sweetness” in addition to color and shape.

It is also considerably cheaper, with trout roe from Russia marinated in soy sauce selling at some 6,000 yen per kilogram, around 40 percent cheaper than salmon roe.

Trout roe has increasingly been used in takeout sushi and “kaisendon” seafood bowls in addition to dishes at sushi-go-round restaurants.

Trout roe is often made by processors in Hokkaido, where improvements in flavoring and freezing technologies have “considerably improved the taste and quality from the past,” according to a Toyosu wholesaler.

Prices of autumn salmon roe is spiking due to the effects of damage from red tide off Hokkaido, but remain in great demand from high-end sushi restaurants.

The wholesaler urged households that cannot afford to buy the expensive salmon roe to try “the reasonable trout roe” as a replacement.

JIJI Press