Japan's agricultural, fisheries and forestry product exports for 2023 are likely to have reached the same record high level as 2022, government data showed Tuesday, despite China's import ban on Japanese marine products over wastewater discharge from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant.
Exports for the January-November period rose 2.8 percent from a year earlier to 1.28 trillion yen ($8.9 billion), supported by an expansion of sales destinations outside of China, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said.
In 2022, Japanese exports of such products hit a record 1.4 trillion yen.
For November alone, they fell 8.6 percent to 111.1 billion yen, dragged down by China-bound seafood exports that sank 86.9 percent to 1 billion yen after Beijing's ban from late August, enacted in response to the ocean discharge of treated radioactive water from the wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
The Japanese government has set a target of raising annual agricultural and seafood exports to 2 trillion yen by 2025 and to 5 trillion yen by 2030.
The farm ministry calculates that annual export growth of over 12 percent is required to reach the goal but this could be affected by a prolonged ban on Japanese marine products by China, as the country is a key destination for wholesalers.
Exports of Nishikigoi ornamental carp to China fell to zero in the reporting month after Beijing halted imports at the end of October. Other non-food products such as pearls and coral were still included in the latest figures.
The aggregate exports of Japanese agricultural, forestry and fisheries products to China in November dropped 48.5 percent to 13.1 billion yen, marking the fifth consecutive month of year-on-year decline, the data showed.
Conversely, exports to the United States grew 31.3 percent to 16.5 billion on robust sales of scallops originally intended for the Chinese market, as well as green tea.
Exports to Hong Kong also grew by 5.5 percent to 22.6 billion, boosted by increased shipments of pearls and beef.
