Japan yesterday certified Taiwan’s brown-marbled grouper as toxin-free in a move that lifted the last import restriction on the nation’s farmed grouper fish, the Fisheries Agency said yesterday.
The announcement came after eight years of bilateral negotiations and efforts by the Taiwanese aquaculture sector to demonstrate the industry’s compliance with Japan’s food safety standards, the agency said in a news release.
Tokyo had barred the import of Taiwanese brown-marbled grouper — which comprises more than 70 percent of the grouper farmed in the nation — out of concern that the fish could be contaminated by ciguatoxin, a substance related to algae, it said.
Photo courtesy of the Fisheries Agency via CNA
The agency commissioned Taiwan Ocean University to conduct a study in 2017 that showed the nation’s fish to be toxin-free and confirmed the result in separate tests using rapid test kits supplied by Japan, it said.
Last year, a delegation of Japanese officials verified the studies after conducting an inspection of the nation’s aquafarms, the agency said.
This team collected water samples across three seasons to show that the fish were raised in environments free of ciguatoxin-generating algae, resulting in Tokyo’s decision to lift restrictions, it said.
Taiwan raises 18,000 tonnes of brown-marbled grouper annually, which has a market value of more than NT$4.4 billion (US$137.37 million), the agency said.
The two other main types of farmed grouper fish are giant grouper and yellow grouper, it added.
Japan’s certification of Taiwanese grouper is a major step in the nation’s bid to reorient its agricultural export economy from China to other trade partners and domestic consumption, it said.
The transition has necessitated industrial upgrades in the form of improved cold chains, food processing and packaging in smaller parcels, in addition to negotiating trade agreements in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it said.
Taiwanese yellow groper are a featured product in a successful Japanese nigiri sushi chain and its giant grouper have been sold in Japanese markets for years, the agency said.
The permit to export brown-marbled grouper to Japan is expected to open markets farther afield, including Malaysia, Singapore and the US, it said.
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