Seafood vendors in Beijing expressed outrage Thursday over Japan’s gradual dumping of effluent from the disaster-plagued Fukushima nuclear power facility into the ocean.
A store manager named Wang Jinglong in one of the Chinese capital’s largest seafood markets told AFP that the leak had already had a “major impact” on his business, particularly tuna sales.
“We used to get some fresh Japanese fish, but due to customs bans we stopped receiving them two months ago,” Wang said, referencing the import controls imposed last month.
If consumers are still interested, Wang showed AFP frozen Japanese seafood products that he will not be able to replace once sold.
“There’s a large gap in our sales volume compared with before. In the past, such as during the pandemic, we had to kill three to five tuna every week,” Wang said.
“Now we kill very few fish, and they are not from Japan, but from Australia, New Zealand and Spain.”
The 53-year-old said the quality of these products is “very poor, and not comparable to that of Japan.”
He claimed he has little choice, though, because of the “great resistance” the public has shown towards Japanese goods.
“This topic of pollution is being closely followed.”
The International Atomic Energy Agency, the nuclear watchdog of the United Nations, has approved the release plan, stating that it complies with international regulations and “won’t harm the environment.”
And the operation is safe, according to the overwhelming opinion of worldwide experts.
However, China announced on Thursday that it will halt the import of all Japanese aquatic products shortly after the dumping of effluent started.
Workers in other parts of the Beijing market claimed that the water discharge strategy had a big influence.
The sale of all seafood imported from Japan has recently decreased.
“The plan to release the water is causing trouble for Japan and all other countries,” said Huang Xiaohao, the boss of a store advertising imported products.
“If you look around at what we’re selling, you’ll find that most of these things are actually domestic products,” he said.
Others claimed that pressure has come from both official customs regulations and from customers who are concerned about the health effects of Japanese seafood products.
A businessman who wished to remain unnamed told AFP that the tuna from countries other than Japan, from which he often purchased his goods, is just not as good.
