Tokyo
Japan expects a significant impact from seafood import ban by Hong Kong and Macau due to the upcoming release of treated water from the Fukushima nuclear plant, an official from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF).
Japan is to start releasing more than 1 million metric tons of treated radioactive water from the destroyed Fukushima nuclear power plant into the sea on Thursday, more than a decade after the accident and amid harsh criticism from China.
China, the biggest importer of Japanese seafood, will take measures to protect its marine environment, food safety and public health, the foreign ministry said on Wednesday. Beijing has already banned imports from some Japanese regions.
In the latest set of measures, the Asian financial centre of Hong Kong and the gambling hub of Macau both special Chinese regions will ban aquatic product imports from 10 Japanese regions including Tokyo and Fukushima from Thursday.
China, also Japan’s top scallop buyer and a major consumer of sea cucumbers, imported 87.1 billion yen ($600 million) worth of Japanese seafood last year, or a fifth of Japan’s total seafood exports, according to the MAFF data.
While strongly criticizing the water release, China has allowed another 9 companies from Russia – which shares some fishery areas with Japan in the Pacific – to export aquatic products, bringing the total number of allowed exporters to 894 firms, Russia’s food safety watchdog said on July 31.
