壽司粉注意啦！海水升溫或推高壽司價格

Sushi prices in restaurants and supermarkets are tipped to soar after a sharp increase in one of the key costs of creating the Japanese dish.

A large proportion of sushi, which combines raw fish or vegetables with cooked vinegared rice, contains farmed shrimp, prawns or salMon.

The cost of the main feed for farmed fish has jumped by almost 50 percent in two weeks to reach a record high, according to reports.

The feed, called fishmeal, is a brown powder made from dried fish bones and the trimmings of small marine species such as anchovies.

Rising sea temperatures led to a drop in anchovy catches in Peru, the world's largest exporter, pushing up prices. A tonne of fishmeal now costs $2,500, according to the Financial Times, up from $1,689 at the end of October.

Fishmeal prices have risen fourfold in a decade due to climate change and increased demand, with around four per cent more farmed fish being eaten every year.

The increased costs are expected to be passed on to diners as restaurants and cafés serving sushi put up prices to maintain their margins.

The most popular sushi consist of raw, prawns, salmon and shrimp and rice. Most of the raw fish is farmed.

The growth of sushi, which has become fashionable in Britain and other western nations over the past few years, and the general popularity of fish this year led to global farmed fish consumption surpassing that of "captured" fish for the first time.在日食的製作成本增加後，餐館及超市的壽司價格也將水漲船高。

大部分壽司都是用生魚肉或蔬菜搭配上醋飯製作而成，其餡料有養殖的小蝦、明蝦或三文魚。

據報道，養殖魚類的主要飼料造價在兩星期內上漲了50%，達到歷史新高。

這種飼料又被叫做魚粉（fishmeal），是用乾燥的魚骨和鳳尾魚等小型海洋生物製成的褐色粉末。

海水溫度上升導致祕魯（Peru）的鳳尾魚捕撈量減少，作爲世界第一大魚粉出口國，祕魯擡高了其價格。據《金融時報》（Financial Times）報導，今年10月末，一噸魚粉的價格由1689美元（約人民幣1.03萬元）上漲至2500美元（人民幣1.53萬元）。

由於氣候變化及需求增加，魚粉的價格已經在十年內上漲了四倍，而每年超過百分之四的魚粉都用於漁業養殖。

預計成本增加將間接影響到食客們，因爲餐館和供應壽司的咖啡館會提高價格以維持利潤。

人氣壽司的製作原料包括生魚肉、明蝦、三文魚、小蝦和米飯，其中大部分生魚肉都來自養殖魚類。

在過去幾年中，壽司在英國和其他西方國家已成爲時尚。由於今年壽司及其他魚產品廣受歡迎，全球養殖魚類消費量首次超過了“捕獲”魚類。