People in the shadow of nuclear-contaminated water: Japanese grocery stores cold weather, buyers cut prices, fishermen say: "We can only save ourselves"
On August 24, Japan decided to discharge the nuclear-contaminated water into the sea, with plans to release it for 30 years. In this regard, two different voices have been put forward internationally. Japanese authorities have declared that the treated water is safe. A spokesperson and China's Ministry of Commerce Jue Ting said: "Japan's move will cause incalculable damage and harm to the global marine environment. ”
More than half a month has passed since that day. After interviewing Japanese grocers, suppliers and fishermen, we found that many people in this chain, both front-end and back-end, are now suffering.
The downstream benefits of Japanese grocery stores are now the biggest risk. Almost overnight, Japanese cuisine was completely detached from Japanese ingredients and merely symbolized Japanese cooking methods. Even high-end Japanese grocery stores have signs made overnight on their doors: "Give up Japanese seafood."
Aquatic suppliers have become more cautious. Some place foam boards in front of the tank to indicate domestic production: Dalian oysters, Liaoning sea cucumbers, Shandong pike crabs... This also symbolizes the large-scale "domestic substitution" of the aquatic environment. Region.
In the case of domestic fishermen, the price of rescued seafood has been affected, but they can only continue to go to sea. Other sea cucumber growers have also noticed that people's desire to consume is declining, and sea cucumbers are difficult to sell. Before the uncertain future really arrived, they decided to try again.
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Chen Yining
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Yi Fangxing
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A Japanese grocery store is thrown into chaos
After 12 o'clock, Tang Lingxue's Japanese restaurant was waiting for the customers at the first table. At noon on weekdays, the store is full. Within a day, the turnover fell from nearly 20,000 yuan to 5,000 yuan. Volume continued to decline.
This happened the day after the sea eruption event.
His Japanese grocery store in Suizhou, Hubei Province, has only been open for three months. Three months ago, as a franchisee, she and her husband opened this affordable Japanese grocery store. There is very little seafood on the menu, and the price per person is 70-80 yuan.
Before August 24, Tang Lingxue did not pay much attention to the source of the ingredients. He simply bought the goods from the company in accordance with the regulations. After receiving the company's delivery confirmation, he immediately removed the scallops produced only in Japan from the store. Other raw materials are imported from France, Russia and Canada, and domestic raw materials are mainly produced in Fujian, Dalian and Yantai.
The signature product salmon comes from Norway, and Tang Lingxue buys it from the local market. Norway has been the largest importer of chilled salmon in the Chinese market for the past four years, accounting for nearly 50% of the market. Tang Lingxue's Japanese food store's stocking channels reveal some of the industry's secret, which is that many Japanese food stores in China do not actually use seafood produced in Japan.
▲On August 27, 2023, a Japanese restaurant in Beijing suspended the sale of all fish products imported from Japan. Image/Visual China
The data also supports this conclusion. For example, according to public data from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Chinese mainland will become Japan's largest exporter of seafood products in 2022. However, looking at China, Japan's seafood imports in 2022 will only be 2.7%.
However, in this case, Tang Lingxue was also very contradictory. Although he drafted a statement stating that "no Japanese ingredients are used," he never published it. He vaguely feels that this contradicts the positioning of Japanese grocery as "Japanese ingredients are airlifted the same day", which used to be the standard for many Chinese grocery stores. This is a trick for high-end Japanese grocery stores, but cheap Japanese grocery stores rarely show where the ingredients come from. This has almost become a tacit understanding between diners and Japanese grocery stores.
However, what was once an advantage has now become the biggest risk. Almost overnight, Japanese cuisine was completely detached from Japanese ingredients and merely symbolized Japanese cooking methods. Even high-end Japanese grocery stores have a sign on their doors that hurries into the night: "Give up Japanese seafood." Many of the low-cost Japanese food chain announcements have time limits, with N Tasushi "adhering to this principle for 15 years" and Natsuki Sushi "never used it before or in the future."
More and more Japanese food brands are trying to regain consumer trust through food traceability reports. Japan's Motoki sushi brand once claimed on its official website that it is "located in multiple ports and seafood markets in Japan, with a variety of fresh seafood selected on site", and boldly introduced "non-Japanese ingredients throughout the store" in a promotion. On August 25, an announcement was made and the store's signature products were marked. Origin: Salmon sashimi from Norway, Arctic clam sashimi from Canada, Red Sea shrimp sashimi from Argentina.
Once the mystery is unraveled, Japan's top budget restaurants come from strikingly similar sources: salmon from Norway or Chile, sweet shrimp from Canada or Russia, bread crab from Scotland, and eel from Guangdong.
Someone half-jokingly asked Tang Lingxue if there were any Japanese ingredients in the store. He showed diners reports and certificates in nearby boxes. Before August 24, Tang Lingxue took the initiative to inform customers that Japan participated in the research and development of dishes in the store, but now he can only remain silent until the other party takes the initiative to ask.
Supply chain transformation
At the same time, the famous seafood market in Gyeongnam is undergoing subtle changes.
One day in early September, there were not many customers shopping in the afternoon. The clerk Pan Jihong sat at the door playing with his mobile phone. Many of the tanks next to it are already empty. Lobsters from Australia are placed at the most conspicuous entrance. In addition, most of the seafood comes from domestic farmers, and the price is stable without large fluctuations. Although there are no ingredients made in Japan, this does not prevent merchants from preparing early. Opposite Pan Jihong is a row of shops selling seafood. In one freezer, the proportion of shellfish sold has decreased, half of which is chicken skewers. When the clerk called the customer, he said, "September 1st is over, and all prices will increase on September 3." ”
▲ Beijing Fish Market is open normally. Photo: Chen Yining
At the same time, ordinary merchants erected foam boards in front of the tank, indicating the origin: oysters from Dalian, sea cucumbers from Liaoning, and pike crabs from Shandong. There are almost no foreign place names.
Japanese grocery store operators are also feeling this change in suppliers. They have two options: import from other countries or buy from the domestic market.
This means that in the hotel industry, "domestic substitution" is gradually emerging. For example, Ren Xinyue works at a Japanese food chain. He noted in July that the store frequently changes domestic suppliers in search of a more stable "domestic salmon and some raw materials" as an alternative. In addition, many large chain stores have also switched to domestic seafood, and stores with large purchases are preferred.
In fact, Japanese food brands may have changed where ingredients are produced in the past, including many mid-to-high-end Japanese grocery stores. Toya Sushi, which specializes in omakase ("おまかと" in Japanese, i.e. non-menu dishes prepared by chefs), has gradually replaced Japanese ingredients with domestic seafood since the beginning of this year. 95% of the ingredients are made in China. The same goes for Manye tuna. Its specialty stores replaced all ingredients except tuna with domestic seafood a year and a half ago.
That's why the stock market will react too. On August 24, China's customs announced a "complete suspension of imports of aquatic animal products from Japan", and aquaculture and salt concept stocks rose. Zhangzidao, Haodangjia, Zhongshui Fishery, Guolian Aquatic Products, and Great Lake 5 stocks rose to the limit.
However, fishermen closer to the buyer noticed that seafood did not sell well due to the impact of volcanic eruptions in Japan.
Zheng Nanlu's father has been a fisherman in Weihai, Shandong Province, for 20 years. In the afternoon, his return to China was delayed when the contaminated water was discharged into the sea. Items that used to sell in an hour now take twice as long.
▲ Li Beibei's father saves sea cucumbers. Image/provided by interviewee
Fish market owners and buyers became cautious. They repeatedly check whether the seafood has changed color or whether it has grown something that shouldn't have grown. Even familiar seafood served by fishermen must be rigorously inspected to avoid "eating problems".
Xie Xiaolan's parents farmed oysters in the Beihai Sea of Guangxi and received fewer orders. Suppliers only accept small quantities of goods, several thousand kilograms at a time, but before that, they usually sold tens of thousands of kilograms in a single order.
The situation of Li Beibei's family, who grows ginseng, is even more serious: the only buyer in the village is no longer there. His home is on Changshan Island in Dalian, Liaoning Province, which is an uninhabited island. People have to take a boat for an hour to reach the city port. Due to incomplete communication with the outside world, it is difficult for islanders to find their own market. Li Beibei's father once carried chickens to the village to help many people sell sea cucumbers.
When the market improved, foreign buyers took the initiative to go to the island and buy Liao ginseng from the villagers one by one. Most of the time we mainly rely on buyers from the village who left the island many years ago. In previous years, he returned to the island during the ripening season of Liao ginseng, but on August 24 this year, he only informed Li Beibei's father through WeChat that the purchase price of autumn ginseng was 200 yuan, lower than in previous years. Prices are still low.
That night, Li Beibei heard her parents arguing through the door. My mother was worried that she had lost the autumn ginseng in her hand and wanted to sell it directly to the buyer. The father did not want to bear the loss of hundreds of thousands of yuan, and decided to find a way on his own.
Sunrise on the seaside is earlier than inland, and the sea opens at 4:50 a.m. Li Beibei's father took the tools and got on the fishing boat. He heard that the restaurant needed fresh sea cucumbers. Li Beibei listened to the sound of the sea tide and stayed awake all night.
Impact on fishing
On the night of the sea eruption, Li Beibei's Liao ginseng farmhouse lowered their heads to eat, and no one spoke.
The incident also had a direct impact on the mainland's fishing industry. Sea cucumber fishing is inseparable from the sea. As a farmer, Li Beibei's father's typical day is to put on plastic clothes, carry a half-human oxygen tank, wear a mask, and walk to the beach. The icy coldness of the sea water still sticks to the skin. He had to descend to a depth of about 30 meters, fill the bag with his chest and surface again. More than a dozen round-trip flights are needed every day, and it takes 20 days to save the sown sea.
As evening approaches, fishing boats must return to shore immediately. The autolyzyme in sea cucumbers prevented them from leaving the sea for too long, so Li Beibei's mother had to start boiling sea cucumbers, and the work lasted until late at night, and her father took off his clothes to eat on the boat. All wearing wetsuits.
This sentence is the best description of Li Beibei's family on the beach, and his life by the sea. Data shows that in 2022, the mainland marine fishing population was 16,194,500. Many of them have entire families and have been in the industry for generations.
In 1999, shortly after Li Beibei was born, his father brought friends to Changshan Island to learn how to rescue and raise sea cucumbers. When he was five years old, his father's business was gradually established, and he and his mother were brought to the island. Since then, he has always seen dark-skinned parents, whose skin has been red, swollen and scaly from the scorching sun.
▲ Sea cucumber saved by dad. Image/provided by interviewee
On this small island supported entirely by sea cucumbers, children go to school alone from the first grade. The role of adults is missing. "Children here always play with each other or with dogs," Li said. Every day, he could only say a few words to his parents when he ate. During the conversation, her parents suddenly said to her like an inconspicuous thorn in her fingertip: "I'm sorry." When there was no harvest, Li Beibei's father was silent all day. In those days of fishing for sea cucumbers, although it is difficult to hide the fatigue, there is a trace of joy between parents and harvests. At that time, the father drank a long-lost glass of wine and then hummed a song that he had never heard before.
After the sea spray incident, Li Beibei felt that the sea had become the sea of his youth again, and the sound of the waves was like the roar of a giant beast devouring him. When he was alone at night, he was scared and felt small.
The sea cucumber fishing season is not long, only two seasons, one lasting about two months. In contrast, the wait for the harvest is long, taking at least five years. Typhoons and changeable weather at sea can make the time longer. The rest of the time is not idle either. Li Beibei's parents dried and boiled sea cucumbers in the yard. In order to reduce costs, the two are responsible for drying sea cucumbers. The family feeds every year from a 70-hectare sea cucumber farm. Now another element of uncertainty has been added – nuclear-contaminated water.
Zheng Nanlu's family feels the same way. The fisherman's father is from Weihai, Shandong. On the second day of going to sea, Zheng Nanlu's father still went to sea on time. He looked calm. Among his circle of friends was a ship sailing alone at sea, with a signature that read "You are so good to the sea."
Zheng Nanlu did not like the sea when he was a child. My father always got up at three or four in the morning to start preparing and came home at seven in the evening, covered in dirt and smelling of the sea. From March to summer vacation, from August to September to the New Year, he felt that the waves were binding his father like invisible chains.
It was not until he was eight years old that Zheng Nanlu went to sea with his father for the first time. The whale makes waves as it jumps out of the water, and his father's arm protects him from the cold sea breeze. He suddenly understood the reason why his father was obsessed with the sea.
But now that pure joy is disappearing.
Self-rescue and escape
This incident also triggered people in all links of the industrial chain to make changes.
Many years ago, Tang Lingxue's franchised brand headquarters put "de-Japaneseization" on the agenda to expand sales. The sea eruption event created a catalyst for this process. On August 27, the company decided to temporarily bring forward the September seminar and add a special topic dedicated to the future direction of change.
Among the options offered by the company, Tang Lingxue's Japanese grocery store can be transformed into a fusion cuisine restaurant, no longer selling one type of Japanese cuisine, but adding a variety of exotic dishes. The road to breakthroughs is challenging, and everything from menu categories to chef training must be changed accordingly.
At this time, Tang Lingxue had already removed the raw food from the store. Whether it changes or not, contradictory feelings have always been entangled in my heart. As an entrepreneur, he looks forward to the day when he can be picked up from the store as soon as possible.
Japanese grocery store operators such as Tang Lingxue face similar problems. They also share a common background – China is the country with the most Japanese grocery stores in the world. According to Dianping's June 2023 data, there are 79,324 Japanese restaurants in Chinese mainland, ranking sixth in the cuisine.
▲Japanese grocery store. Image/Visual China
Among the Japanese diners in Tang Lingxue's restaurant, most of the customers who usually come to eat are between the ages of 25 and 35. Almost everyone mentions "240 days". This is the timing of the spread of contaminated water in Fukushima, simulated by Tsinghua University: eight months after release, radioactive material began to appear in the waters east of Taiwan, and then quickly covered the southeastern coastal waters of the mainland and spread to the East China Sea and the Bohai Sea.
After that day, people don't know what will change. After all, according to CCTV news reports, it is the first time in the world that wastewater was discharged into the sea after the nuclear power plant accident. There is also a fierce debate in the international community about the future of the oceans.
However, as the time approached, so did the concerns. The contaminated water may affect the tourist town of Beihai, making life more difficult for Xie Xiaolan's family. He is also concerned about the impact on the health of his family. For many Confucianists, fishing is their only skill for half their lives. Usually even cooking is done on board. Now continuing to go to sea has become the only option. For example, after Zheng Nanlu's mother decided to quit her job to help her father sell goods, the family of five depended entirely on their father's income for their livelihood, and the family was inseparable from the sea.
But this time, some people have also come up with new ways to help themselves. At Li Beibei's house, his father took the initiative to ask his opinion for the first time. He decided to post about his family on social media. In the introduction, Li Beibei's tone was quite tragic: "After being thrown into the sea, it is a devastating blow to us fishermen, and we can only save ourselves and expand sales." ”
The post attracted the attention of many netizens, and many netizens asked how to buy. Li Beibei borrowed a classmate's idle fish account and sold the first wave of sea cucumbers. One or two kilograms were sold that night. Guided by netizens, he opened his own store, and the platform subsequently expanded to other locations. Local processors supplied Li Beibei at cost prices, and sea cucumber retail gradually returned to normal.
These days, he often dreams that someone is coming to pack his things, and he and his mother are packing sea cucumbers in the yard.
In his dream, the sea did not abandon him.
▲ Zheng Nanlu's father's circle of friends, his personal signature is "The sea, you are so good". Image/provided by interviewee
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