'Stock of 100,000 tons' Japanese Scallops Rejected in China, Headed to This Country

Japanese Scallops Rejected by China
Japan Turns to Vietnam

Recently, China has imposed a complete ban on the import of Japanese seafood, including scallops, prompting Japanese authorities to decide to export scallops to Vietnam for processing. Until now, Japanese scallops were often exported to China for processing and then re-exported to Europe and other regions, but this time, a new market route has been found in Vietnam.

According to foreign media such as Japan's Nihon Keizai Shimbun and Vietnam's Thanh Nien, a major Japanese seafood wholesaler will begin trial processing of Hokkaido scallops in Vietnam starting from the 8th. Scallops, one of Japan's representative export seafood products, have been processed in China before being exported to Europe and the United States. In fact, in 2022, Japan exported scallops worth 91 billion yen, of which more than half, 46.7 billion yen, were exported to China.

However, the Chinese government completely halted imports of Japanese seafood in August last year, citing the issue of Japan's Fukushima contaminated water discharge into the ocean, making it difficult to process scallops in China. As a result, with scallop stockpiles reaching 100,000 tons and fishermen's dissatisfaction growing, the Japanese government has been seeking alternative sales channels.

[Image source=Pixabay]

This time, by accepting Japanese scallops in Vietnam, Japanese seafood companies plan to first trial process 20 tons of scallops and then increase the contracted volume. The Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported, "Since labor costs in Vietnam are only about 20-30% of those in Japan, prices are expected to be low even considering transportation costs," adding, "The movement to establish overseas processing bases to replace China has officially begun."

Meanwhile, last month, the Japanese government set detailed targets to sell scallops worth 4.1 billion yen to South Korea, 4.5 billion yen to the European Union, and 2.4 billion yen and 0.5 billion yen respectively to Thailand and Vietnam. In response to the controversy, the South Korean government stated that "this is merely a plan by the Japanese side and import restrictions will be maintained."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.