Radiation fears prompt South Koreans to turn to US lobster, Norwegian salmon imports

I saw a strange sight at a supermarket where I went shopping last weekend.

Lobsters--live, not frozen--from the Atlantic Ocean thousands of miles away were piled up on the shelves, and shoppers were buying them, one after another, without any sense of resistance.

As the lobster is a not-so-familiar food commodity in Korea, I had no idea how to cook it.

I took up one in my hand but returned to the shelf. Then an aged lady next to me said: "You can boil it with some pieces of ginger and a slice of lemon."

I asked her if it is a normal way of eating a lobster, and the lady answered that it was her way.  It seemed to me as if consumers have already gotten used to lobsters.

I inquired a seafood buyer at the supermarket why they sell lobsters.

He responded: "We suffered a drastic decrease in the sales of seafood because of the fear about radioactive contaminated water that leaked from a nuclear power plant in Japan."

"In an effort to change the mood, we launched sale of lobsters. It made a great success," he said.

Since then, 600,000 lobsters were imported to Korea from overseas, including the United States. In point of fact, Koreans have now eaten 3 out of 10 American lobsters--an amount larger than in the U.S.

In a similar move, Norwegian salmon enjoyed successful sales in the Korean market under the repercussion of the fear of radioactive contamination of seafood.

In recent days, salmon came to the top in the list of popular fish in the market.

Last month, the largest salmon producer in Norway constructed a fresh salmon processing plant in Incheon with an apparent aim to provide Norwegian salmon as sashimi to Korean consumers.

Previously, Korea's consumption of salmon was lowest among Asian nations because salmon did not suit the taste of Koreans who prefer stronger flavor and harder texture.

It is reported, however, that salmon consumption increased in an explosive way this year.

What surprises us is the "power of concentration" of Koreans to dominate 30% of the American lobster market in such a short period of time.

Also, the consumers in Japan--where nuclear power plant accident took place--did not have the strength of Korean consumers who attracted the salmon producers from Norway, the world's second largest seafood aquaculture country, to build a plant in Korea.

But, regrettably, the reality is that the fisheries industry in Korea has failed to obtain the trust of the market and has remained stagnant despite the presence of such powerful consumers in the backyard.

Korean seafood buyers complain that consumers give cold shoulder even toward farmed fish from Namhae and other areas (in Korea), even when they know that those products are completely free from pollution.

The buyers entreated me to write about the safety of farmed fish and encourage the consumers to buy and eat more fish.

A question can be posed here whether the cause of consumer mistrust is solely the leak of polluted water.

Is not there mistrust toward the competence of the Korean fisheries industry as such?

Norway, now a powerful fish farming country, had once experienced a crisis of its fisheries industry because of environmental pollution caused by the shrinkage of fishing enterprises.

At this point, Norway took the measures to transform its fisheries policy and production paradigm through structural adjustment toward larger-scale aquaculture and investing massive funds for the promotion of research and development as well as improvement of human resources.

We satisfy ourselves with crying that only marine development will provide a way for future survival of Korea as a nation.