{"id":42249,"date":"2023-11-05T02:20:39","date_gmt":"2023-11-05T02:20:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/business\/japans-scallop-industry-seeks-safe-harbour-from-china-ban\/"},"modified":"2023-11-05T02:20:39","modified_gmt":"2023-11-05T02:20:39","slug":"japans-scallop-industry-seeks-safe-harbour-from-china-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/?p=42249","title":{"rendered":"Japan\u2019s scallop industry seeks safe harbour from China ban"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Stay informed with free updates<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__content-sign-up-topic-description\"><span>Simply sign up to the <!-- -->Japanese business &amp; finance<!-- --> myFT Digest &#8212; delivered directly to your inbox.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe class=\"article__content-sign-up-iframe close\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"signUpIframe\" data-prev-url=\"\/register\/in-article-sign-up?ft-content-uuid=59b1adf3-e503-4a11-85d3-671de481c71f&amp;concept-id=58e2c9ab-2425-46d2-906d-c866e7c24dd6\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<p>The jumbo scallops from the northern Japanese fishing town of Betsukai, on the island of Hokkaido, have a reputation for being among the most delicious on the planet, a cherished ingredient on a classic sushi plate.<\/p>\n<p>But for the past month, the Japanese government has exhorted the public to consume at least five of the delicacies daily to help draw down stocks that have piled up after Beijing banned imports of the bivalves in August.<\/p>\n<p>Last week, the US military bases in Japan bought up hundreds of tonnes of scallops, crustacean casualties in what Washington\u2019s ambassador to Tokyo Rahm Emanuel called the \u201ceconomic wars\u201d with China.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s probably the biggest industry shock we\u2019ve had in a decade,\u201d Takeshi Ise, president of Marui Sato Kaisan, a scallop processing company in Betsukai, said of the embargo, which China introduced after Japan began releasing filtered water from the Fukushima nuclear disaster.<\/p>\n<p>But even as businesses reel from the aftermath, investors said Beijing\u2019s ban could deliver an unexpected boost for the industry, offering an opportunity to accelerate consolidation and redirect supply chains to sell directly into markets such as the US.<\/p>\n<p>Scallops are Japan\u2019s most exported food product, worth about \u00a591bn last year, up 42 per cent on the year before. China is the biggest buyer, but industry executives said only about 10 to 15 per cent was consumed domestically, while the rest was processed and exported to the US and south-east Asia.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"n-content-image n-content-image--full\"><picture><source media=\"(min-width: 700px)\"  width=\"2265\" height=\"1510\"><\/source><source media=\"(max-width: 490px)\"  width=\"1543\" height=\"1543\"><\/source><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/https:\/\/d1e00ek4ebabms.cloudfront.net\/production\/e2b4969d-2ce4-42d3-9255-1d859717d379.jpg\" alt=\"US ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel\" data-image-type=\"image\" width=\"2265\" height=\"1510\"><\/picture><figcaption class=\"n-content-picture__caption\"><span>US ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel, announced a plan to buy Hokkaido scallops on Tuesday<\/span><span> <!-- -->\u00a9 Takaaki Kameda\/The Yomiuri Shi\/Reuters<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Exports of Hokkaido-based seafood products directly to the US jumped to \u00a51.6bn ($10.6mn) in September from \u00a51mn the year before, as sales to China, much of which was previously for processing and re-export, fell to zero, according to customs figures.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJapanese scallops are said to be one of the world\u2019s finest so\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009we will definitely be able to sell them,\u201d said Motohisa Yoshimura, chief executive of Yoshimura Food, which controls about 10 per cent of the country\u2019s scallop market and whose share price has doubled over the past year as it snapped up smaller rivals.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe challenge for us from next year is whether the fishermen, processing companies and trading houses can agree on\u00a0an appropriate price so that Japan, the US and countries outside China can buy the scallops,\u201d said Ise.<\/p>\n<p>The molluscs became a geopolitical target in July, one month before the Japanese authorities began the gradual release of 1.3mn tonnes of treated but still mildly radioactive water from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear meltdown in 2011.<\/p>\n<p>The International Atomic Energy Agency approved Tokyo\u2019s plan, but China responded by imposing a flat ban on imports of Japanese seafood, sending prices tumbling and causing inventories to pile up as fisheries received low offers for unsold stock.<\/p>\n<p>The embargo, which included Hong Kong, also hit the crucial processing industry in China.<\/p>\n<p>Lost amid the trade furore, however, is how bad business was before the ban, investors said.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the global appetite for scallops, the industry was suffering many of the wider macroeconomic and demographic issues plaguing Japanese business.<\/p>\n<p>Fisheries and processing companies are suffering from a chronic staff shortage, current workers are ageing and many groups have no successor in place for elderly founders. Coupled with rising costs and lack of funds to invest in modernising outdated equipment, scores of small companies were already close to collapse.<\/p>\n<p>But as with other corners of corporate Japan, rivalry and hostility have prevented consolidation among scallop companies, impeding one solution to the industry\u2019s ills.<\/p>\n<p>One company has begun to change that. Yoshimura Food has over the past eight years acquired a portfolio of more than 30 regional food companies, and most recently two major scallop processing groups. <\/p>\n<p>It has also managed to build a reputation as a gentle corporate consolidator and a friendly home for companies with succession struggles, by retaining the targets\u2019 staff.<\/p>\n<p>In doing so, it has raised hopes for the emergence of a Japanese scallop champion with a far greater global market share and purchasing power.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor us to hold the same bargaining power as the large processing companies in China, we need to have a bigger scale,\u201d Yoshimura said. \u201cWe want to create a market where we can negotiate for appropriate prices.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Read the full article <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/59b1adf3-e503-4a11-85d3-671de481c71f\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the Japanese business &amp; finance myFT Digest &#8212; delivered directly to your inbox. The jumbo scallops from the northern Japanese fishing town of Betsukai, on the island of Hokkaido, have a reputation for being among the most delicious on the planet, a cherished ingredient on a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-42249","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-business"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Japan\u2019s scallop industry seeks safe harbour from China ban | Innodebt<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Japanese business &amp; finance myFT Digest -- delivered directly to your inbox.The jumbo scallops\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/innodebt.com\/?p=42249\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Japan\u2019s scallop industry seeks safe harbour from China ban | Innodebt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Japanese business &amp; 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