Hong Kong details import ban on some Japanese seafood due to Fukushima release

Intage Holdings

23/08/2023 10:28

HONG KONG, Aug 23 (Reuters) - Hong Kong has set up a
special government team to monitor and review an import ban on
some Japanese seafood due to the country's imminent release of
treated radioactive water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear
plant into the sea.
    Hong Kong authorities will strengthen monitoring of seafood
imports coming from Japan and publish daily radiation sample
results so the public can see, the city's Permanent Secretary
for Environment and Ecology Vivian Lau said.
    Though approved by the U.N. nuclear watchdog, Japan's plan
to dump the water has faced opposition at home and abroad,
including from China, over worries about food safety.
    Hong Kong's leader said on Tuesday that he strongly opposed
Japan's release of the water into the sea, while Chinese foreign
ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin called the move "extremely
selfish" and that Beijing had lodged a formal complaint with the
Japanese government.
    On Thursday, Japan will begin releasing more than a million
tons of water from the plant north of Tokyo, insisting it is
safe to do so. The plant was wrecked in a 2011 tsunami and the
water has mostly been used to cool damaged reactors.
    Hong Kong's import ban is also due to take effect from
Thursday. It covers imported aquatic products from the Japanese
regions of Tokyo, Fukushima, Chiba, Tochigi, Ibaraki, Gunma,
Miyagi, Niigata, Nagano and Saitama.
    The government said there was no timetable about how long
the ban would last and that a decision would depend on data and
information from the Japan after the discharge.
    Seafood imports from 13 other Japanese regions will still be
allowed.
    The measure covers live, frozen, refrigerated and dried
aquatic products, sea salt and seaweed.
    Hong Kong is Japan's second largest market, after mainland
China, for agricultural and fisheries exports. It imported 75.5
billion yen ($519.54 million) worth of seafood from Japan last
year, Japanese data shows.
    Some Hong Kong fish sellers, like 57-year old fish shop
owner Robert Ho, said the ban would likely help their sales of
local fish.
    "Because there's no Japanese fish in the market our local
fish have the upper hand... do we still need to eat Japanese
fish when we have these big locally caught fish?" 



($1 = 145.3200 yen)

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 (Reporting by Farah Master, Twinnie Siu, and Joyce Zhou;
Editing by Kim Coghill)
 ((farah.master@thomsonreuters.com; +852 3462 7709;))