February 13, 2012

Japan's 2011 farm, marine exports down 8.3%  

Japan's 2011 farm, forestry and marine product exports fell 8.3% to JPY451 billion (US$5.81 billion), driven by a 35% plunge in exports to China due to its import restrictions following Fukushima nuclear crisis, the farm ministry said Friday (Feb 10).

Exports to China plunged to JPY36 billion (US$0.46 billion), while shipments to Hong Kong, the biggest importer of Japanese agricultural and seafood products, decreased 8.1% to JPY111 billion (US$1.43 billion), according to a preliminary report by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

Exports also dropped 2.9% to the US to JPY66.6 billion (US$0.86 billion), by 3% to Taiwan to JPY59 billion (US$0.76 billion), and by 12% to South Korea to JPY41 billion (US$0.53 billion).

Overall exports of farm, forestry and marine products had risen in 2010 for the first time in three years.

But in 2011, only shipments of forestry products increased by 16.5% to JPY12 billion (US$0.16 billion). Exports of farm produce dropped by 7.4% to JPY265 billion (US$3.4billion), and of fisheries products by 10.9% to 173.7 billion (US$2.24 billion)

Among specific products, exports of powdered milk plunged 66.6% to JPY4.7 billion (US$0.06 billion) due to import restrictions imposed by Hong Kong.

On the other side of the ledger, Japan's imports of agricultural and marine products during 2011 increased 13.1% to JPY8,051 billion (US$104 billion), due to higher grain prices resulting partly from bad weather in Australia, the farm ministry said.