Fish Exported from Fukushima for 1st Time since N-Accident

Fukushima, Feb. 28 (Jiji Press)--Fresh fish was shipped to Thailand from Fukushima Prefecture on Wednesday, marking the first fish exports from the northeastern Japan prefecture since the March 2011 nuclear accident. The prefecture aims to improve the brand of its fishery products to dispel lingering concerns about radioactive contamination from the triple meltdown at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.'s <9501> Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant. On Wednesday, a total of 110 kilograms of flatfish unloaded at a port in the city of Soma in the morning was shipped to Thailand. The fish will be served at 12 Japanese restaurants in Bangkok on Friday. Flatfish will be shipped to the Southeast Asian country from the prefecture regularly. The prefecture aims to increase the number of export destinations in the future. "We're delighted to be able to sell fish worldwide from our prefecture," said Kanji Tachiya, head of a fisheries cooperative association in Soma. "We'll ship safe fish." According to the prefecture, sample checks have detected no radioactive cesium exceeding the country's safety standards from fishery products from Fukushima since April 2015. Following the nuclear accident, the Fukushima Prefectural Federation of Fisheries Cooperative Associations refrained voluntarily from all fishing operations off the coast of the prefecture. In 2012, the federation restarted fishing operations on a trial basis. In March last year, it reduced the area in which operations were voluntarily suspended to a 10-kilometer radius from the nuclear plant, from a 20-kilometer radius. END