MONBETSU, Hokkaido--Scallop aquaculture here is just barely keeping its head above water after being plunged into crisis a year ago when China slapped a blanket ban on Japanese seafood imports.

The move was in protest to the release of treated radioactive water from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean.

The industry seems to have tided over the emergency with increased consumption at home and development of other export markets, but it is still bracing for hard times because Beijing shows no sign of lifting the ban anytime soon.

In early August, large trucks were seen carrying ocean-fresh scallops into processing factories at Monbetsu Port facing the Sea of Okhotsk.

August is the peak season for scallop harvesting.

China imposed the import ban on Aug. 24 last year to coincide with Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s release of tons of treated water from the Fukushima nuclear complex.

Factories were not unable to stop their operations because scallops are cultured from young shells and need to be harvested in a systematic manner.

Inventories of frozen scallops piled up, and warehousing costs further pushed up losses.

At Maru Uroko Sanwa Suisan, a seafood wholesaler based in Monbetsu, the inventory increased nearly four times as much as in an average year.

Scallops are a flagship export item among Japanese seafood products, and China and Hong Kong were a primary market.

In 2022, Japan exported marine products worth 387.3 billion yen ($2.66 billion).

China topped the list of destinations with 87.1 billion yen, including 46.7 billion yen for scallops. Hong Kong took the No. 2 spot with 75.5 billion yen, including 14 billion yen for scallops.

The government shelled out about 100 billion yen to expand consumption, develop sales channels and support affected fishermen.

In September last year, Ichiro Miyashita, then minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries, implored every Japanese person to eat at least five scallops.

The town of Mori in Hokkaido bought scallops from local seafood processing companies and provided them for free for use in school lunches nationwide.

Sales picked up around last winter, when major supermarket chains and conveyor-belt sushi restaurants promoted scallops in campaigns to support the industry.

In the hometown tax donation program, many taxpayers chose scallops among local specialties that municipalities present as gifts in exchange for donations.

Scallop production reached only 482,000 tons in 2023, down 5.9 percent from a year earlier.

While exports declined 14.6 percent to 248,000 tons, domestic consumption increased 5.5 percent to 234,000 tons.

Among other destinations, exports to the United States, Vietnam and Thailand rose, making up for about half of the demand lost due to China’s import ban.

Internal affairs ministry statistics showed that per-household consumption of scallops in December surged 60 percent from a year earlier and has stayed at high levels.

Japan Delica Co., a food trading company in Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture, will soon start sending scallops in the shell harvested in Hokkaido and Aomori Prefecture to Bangladesh this summer to be shelled.

The meat of the bivalves, or the adductor muscles, will be exported to the United States, European countries and Hong Kong.

Shinsaku Yamamoto, president of Japan Delica, said the arrangement will contribute to job creation in the South Asian country.

Until China banned seafood imports, the process of removing scallop shells was mainly done in China and the meat was exported to the United States and elsewhere from there.

Industry officials are heaving a sigh of relief as scallop inventories have shrunk, describing increased demand at home as a “divine wind.”

Still, government and industry officials agree that exports to China are not likely to resume anytime soon.

They are also concerned that domestic demand may fall back.

“We are facing a crucial moment as to whether we can maintain the sales channels we have developed,” said an industry insider in Sapporo.

A senior fisheries ministry official also said the industry cannot count on the goodwill of the people forever because the attention of consumers has switched to victims of the magnitude-7.6 earthquake that struck the Noto Peninsula on Jan. 1 and other issues.

(This article was written by Shinichi Maruishi, Hironori Kato and Eiji Zakoda.)