Fish production companies from Indonesia to Norway may benefit from an increase in demand from Japan, where radiation released by a crippled nuclear plant has been detected in the ocean and the food and water supply.
Hong Kong’s Pacific Andes International Holdings Ltd. and Norway’s Marine Harvest ASA (MHG), Cermaq ASA (CEQ) and Salmar ASA (SALM) may see higher demand for their fish to make up for a drop in Japan’s seafood production. Five kinds of radioactive material released by damaged fuel rods from the Fukushima Dai-Ichi facility were detected in the nearby sea, including iodine-131, cesium-134 and cobalt, according to plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said yesterday the government instructed regulators to implement maximum monitoring on Japan’s seafood. The prefectures nearest the nuclear plant damaged by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami — Miyagi, Iwate and Fukushima — produce 707,500 tons of seafood, accounting for 13 percent of Japan’s 5.6 million tons of annual production, according to Statistics Japan.
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