News Release

Kunisaki Oysters Now Available in the Market

December 2, 2015
Yanmar Co., Ltd.

In collaboration with Oita Fisheries Cooperative Association, Yanmar will begin shipment of its top-of-the-range oysters in December of this year. Marketed as Kunisaki Oysters, after the city in Japan where they are cultivated, they are expected to receive high acclaim as a regional delicacy. They are generating a lot of interest, not only for their mouth-watering attributes, but also for the unprecedented on land bivalve seedling production techniques employed-Single Seed Oyster Cultivation^* and Tide and Deep^**.

In 2003, Yanmar began selling feed for bivalves followed by the development of its very own bivalve cultivation technology. Since 2011, Yanmar has continued to undertake research relating to single seed oyster cultivation, leading to new discoveries in the field. The Kunisaki Oysters are more flavorful and are best when eaten raw. Future plans involved sales expansion in Japan and into the international markets.

At Yanmar’s bivalve farming facility, Yanmar Marine Farm, they are able to greatly reduce cultivation lead-time, for a much more rapid supply of oysters, in a highly efficient integrated system. Hoping to be recognized as a gourmet food produced in Oita, the prefecture where Kunisaki is situated, Yanmar’s innovatory solutions will play a part in revitalizing the local fisheries industry.

In 2013, in collaboration with the Kunisaki Fisheries Cooperative, Yanmar utilized a fish pond (previously used for Japanese tiger prawn farming) for carrying out research, and successfully developed the Tide and Deep method, an ultra-efficient cultivation practice. Since 2014, Yanmar has been expanding its research areas in and around Kunisaki, farming from the egg phase all the way up until maturity. Using this opportunity as a starting point, the Yanmar Group hopes to breathe life into other fisheries, in a continued effort to find the right solutions for the challenges that people face.