SEOUL, June 19 (Xinhua) — South Korea’s import of Japanese seafood plummeted for the second consecutive month on rising fear about Japan’s deliberate launch of radioactive wastewater from its crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear energy plant into the Pacific Ocean.
The import of Japanese seafood, together with reside, refrigerated and frozen fish in addition to shellfish, dropped 30.6 % over the 12 months to 2,129 tons in May, after sinking 26.0 % in April, Yonhap news company stated Monday citing information from the Korea Customs Service.
The current drop in imports of Japanese fish and shellfish gave the impression to be related to rising issues about Japanese fishery merchandise forward of the deliberate discharge of the Fukushima-contaminated water this summer season, Yonhap stated.
According to Japanese media, the take a look at operation of the contaminated water discharge facility started per week earlier.
In May 2010, a couple of 12 months earlier than the huge earthquake and tsunami crippled the Fukushima nuclear energy plant, South Korea’s import of Japanese fishery merchandise reached 7,475 tons, greater than tripling the import quantity in the identical month of this 12 months.
South Korea has banned all seafood imports from eight Japanese prefectures close to Fukushima following the catastrophe.