What Is The Current Situation Of Japanese Seafood?

What is the current situation of Japanese seafood

After China reduced the import of Japanese fish products, the sales of Japanese fish products plummeted, but Japan did not believe in the order and insisted on fighting with China for seven months, and did not expect that today, Japan even exports scallops are extremely difficult.

What is the current state of Japanese seafood?

Shoot yourself in the foot

Japan's seafood exports to five countries, including China and the United States, Japan's exports to the United States accounted for 30% of the seafood, exports to China accounted for about 20% of the seafood.

China and the United States directly help Japan complete half of the sales of aquatic products, but Japan's nuclear sewage into the sea through the United States and China, and even three of Japan's five seafood exporters are deeply affected by nuclear sewage.

In particular, the United States, while supporting Japan's nuclear sewage into the sea, while reducing the import of Japanese seafood orders.

On the surface, U.S. Ambassador to Japan Emanuel and others also tasted snacks made of seafood from Fukushima Prefecture in front of the media, but in fact the United States did not increase its purchase of Japanese seafood, but induced other countries to buy it.

China is considered to be among many countries, the purchasing power is relatively strong, whether it is the market size, potential or other aspects, other countries and China have a certain gap.

However, after Japan's nuclear sewage was discharged into the sea, China decisively introduced a seafood ban, saying that it would no longer accept Japanese seafood, and stopped helping Japan to process seafood such as scallops.

When China provides scallop processing services to Japan, Japan exports scallop products processed in China to the United States.

Americans prefer scallops with reduced size and tight meat after processing, and scallops processed in China can precisely meet their needs, and Japan has taken into account their needs and has long sought China to do scallop processing business.

After the implementation of the relevant ban in China, Japan had to look for countries in Southeast Asia to help them complete the processing, and did not want to affect the export of aquatic products.

However, after Japan's nuclear sewage was discharged into the sea, several major customers who had purchased Japanese aquatic products, such as South Korea and Hong Kong, China, resolutely refused to import Japanese aquatic products.

Even the United States, Japan's biggest customer, is not on Japan's side, but Norway, Finland and other Nordic countries, they offer to import Japanese fish products.

Before and after the Japanese nuclear sewage was discharged into the sea, and even until the beginning of this year, the Japanese Tepco company issued a test report on the water quality in Japan, and the report showed that their water quality was no problem.

However, the sales of fish products in Japan are still slow to go up, and 40% to 80% of the people in the country doubt that seafood contaminated with nuclear sewage can not be eaten, especially the Japanese middle class.

The restaurant owner reflected to the Japanese media that the middle class who make an appointment to eat seafood in the restaurant has decreased significantly, and the store has become more or less popular this year, but the number of customers is still a long way from before Japan's nuclear sewage was discharged into the sea.

Local fish products are not selling, and Japan's fisheries minister has begun to act, and on February 19 this year, Mexico will contact Mexico to import their fish products.

Japan's fisheries ministry wants Mexican seafood imports, in large part because Japan's exports of scallops to China plunged 44 percent in 2023, and the United States does not buy Japan's unprocessed scallops in the shell.

However, Japan plans to increase the export amount of aquatic products such as scallops to 65.6 billion yen (100 yen about 5 yuan) in 2025, and after comprehensive consideration, Japan can only temporarily target other countries.

Japan plans to export its fish products mainly to South Korea and the European Union, while other Southeast Asian countries, except Thailand, are generally not strong in purchasing power, so it can only hope to export more fish products to Thailand.