Icelandic firm ships 631 tons of whale meat to Japan in Jan.-Sept.+

LONDON, Nov. 6 Kyodo - The Icelandic company that resumed full-fledged whale meat exports to Japan this year has shipped more than 600 tons of finback whale meat to the Asian country and the annual total could reach the level seen in the early 1990s,
sources close to the matter said Friday.
The company, Hvalur, exported 631 tons of finback whale meat to Japan in the
first nine months of this year, according to the sources and Icelandic
government data. In Japan, roughly 4,000 tons of mainly minke whale meat,
caught in ''research'' whaling, is marketed annually.
Hvalur Managing Director Kristjan Loftsson said in October that the company had
shipped 500 to 600 tons of finback whale meat to Japan.
Hvalur, which exported 66.6 tons of meat to Japan on a trial basis in 2008 for
the first time in 17 years, plans to increase shipments depending on sales
results in the Japanese market, the sources said. The company suspended
Japan-bound exports in 2009.
Japan halted commercial whaling in 1986 in line with an international
moratorium on such activities, but has hunted whales since 1987 for what it
calls scientific research purposes.
Hvalur is the only company in Iceland to export whale meat to Japan.
==Kyodo