Japan's Retailing Giants Sell Fukushima Foods
Some of Japan’s biggest retailers are supporting Fukushima farmers by selling their rice and produce to show they are completely safe, reported Asahi Shimbun. The chains seem to be competing with each other to reap consumer goodwill for their efforts.
The Aeon Company, which operates the JUSCO supermarket chain, is currently holding a two-day event at 11 Tokyo-area locations to sell rice and apples grown in Fukushima. The produce had been tested for radiation and found to be below the levels measurable by the detection equipment used, said a company spokesman.
In addition to being Asia’s biggest retail conglomerate, Aeon also develops and operates shopping malls.
The Ito-Yokada supermarket chain has been promoting a sales campaign for Fukushima grown rice and beef since November 7. Its sales of rice grown in the city of Koriyama, at the very heart of Fukushima Prefecture, has not been hurt by recent reports that rice grown in the Onami district of Fukushima city were found to contain radioactive cesium levels exceeding legal limits, said a spokesman.
Vegetables grown in Fukushima have been on sale since August with signs displaying the precise levels of radiation detected at an outlet of the mail-order company Cataloghouse in Tokyo’s Shinbashi district. It is currently selling apples, cucumbers and turnips, and will begin selling rice as well in December. Sales have been steady, a spokesman reported.
Tokyo’s venerable Takashimaya department store has already sold 235 5-kilogram gift bags of prize-winning Koriyama rice at 5,565 yen ($72) apiece.
“By sending this rice as a year-end gift, the recipient will hopefully feel that the Fukushima rice is safe to eat,” said a 47-year-old woman from Kobe shopping at the branch in Tokyo’s Chuo Ward.
Retailers report that customers have been calm and rational in making buying decision when given adequate explanations. But the difficulty lies in moving Fukushima products when they are simply placed out for sale along with products from other regions. Many consumers continue to seek rice grown in western Japan, far from the site of the nuclear disaster in northeastern Japan.
Retailers located in Fukushima Prefecture are reporting serious difficulties. An outlet selling Fukushima-raised meat has lost most of its business from local Italian and French restaurants frequented by foreigners. They aren’t convinced of the meat’s safety despite data on the levels of radiation actually detected.
“Even if the prefectural government and retailing sector says the produce is safe, consumers cannot be confident that the produce is really safe,” said Hiroyuki Suzuki, 62, who grows and sells rice in Otama, Fukushima Prefecture. “It is difficult for those of us who sell the produce because we have to await the decision by consumers whether to buy or not after displaying (radiation) levels.”