Fresh opportunities: Japanese seafood exporters look to new markets to hit ‘5 trillion yen’ target after China ban

At last week’s FoodEx show in Tokyo, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) held a networking reception party to support businesses that want to develop new overseas sales channels due to the treated wastewater issue. Last August, China enforced a ban on seafood imports from Japan when the latter treated releasing radioactive water from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean. The Japanese government said the discharge was necessary in order to decommission of the Fukushima Daiichi power plant. It has frequently cited that the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has sanctioned this action​ and deemed it safe However, it led to an immediate 76% drop in shipments year-on-year to China, with only 2.2 billion yen (US$14.7 million) worth of products exported, down from 9 billion yen in August 2022 (US$60 million), data from Japan's Finance Ministry showed. In a bid to drum up new business, MAFF and the Japan External Trade ...