Japanese seafood companies have launched a trial program which involves processing Hokkaido scallops in Vietnam, following a recent ban by China on Japanese seafood imports.
Seafood e-retailer Foodison is joining hands with wholesaler Ebisu Shokai and trading houses Ocean Road and Nosui to export more than 20 tonnes of unshelled scallops to Vietnam for processing on a trial basis. The main reason for doing this is to capitalise on the much lower cost of manpower in Vietnam as compared to in Japan.
Under the agreement, scallops purchased by Ocean Road from Ebisu and exported to Vietnam will be processed and exported back to Japan to be sold by Foodison, Ebisu, and Nosui to retailers and restaurants. The first batch of scallops has already been delivered to Vietnam, where they will be processed into half-shell scallops for cooking, sushi-grade meat, and frozen scallops to be eaten raw.
Currently, Ocean Road processes shrimp and crab in Vietnam before exporting these seafood products back to Japan for consumption.
Scallop processors in Vietnam have obtained HACCP international food safety certifications, which allow Japanese companies to deliver seafood products processed/cleaned in Vietnam to markets such as the US and the EU.
Based on the results of the pilot program, the companies involved will decide whether to continue scallop processing in Vietnam, where the labor costs in scallop processing are only 20-30% of those in Japan. Despite factoring in shipping costs, the anticipated price of scallops processed in Vietnam for use in sushi and other raw preparations is expected to be lower than that of scallops processed in Japan. Japan also lacks the manpower to handle the country’s scallop processing needs.
In 2023, Japan exported nearly 500,000 metric tons of shell scallops to global markets, including 140,000 metric tons to China, of which about 100,000 metric tons were for processing. However, the quantity of unprocessed scallops in Japan has seen a significant increase since August 2023 due to Beijing’s prohibition on seafood imports from Japan, a response to Japan’s release of treated radioactive water from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant into the Pacific Ocean.
