Posted on 10/13/2013 10:42:20 PM PDT by TexGrill
In a harbor fish market in Jung District, Incheon, lights along the fish stalls were shining to attract customers Friday evening. In contrast to the mood created by the bright lights, there were hardly more than a dozen customers.
“Just a few months ago, we had to keep the stall open well past midnight to accommodate,” says Jung Gyung-suk, a 57-year-old fishmonger who has run a stall for almost three decades. “All day long, I have had only three groups of customers, about 10 people,” said the somber-looking restaurant owner as she shuttered her stall at about 10 p.m.
Jung said the already sluggish sales have gotten worse since it was revealed last week that some seafood products from Japan exceeded the standard radiation level.
In a desperate effort to revive sales and ease growing safety concerns, Jung said she replaced all of her fish products with ones that are either domestic or imported from China or Russia, but soon discovered it was to no avail.
Another fish-stall owner named Cho Myung-son told the JoongAng Ilbo that her customers have fallen by more than 30 percent and she is losing money.
Amid growing concerns over the safety of fish products following a series of revelations about radioactive water seeping into the Pacific Ocean from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, the domestic fish market has been hit hard by the dropping demand.
“Since August, we stopped supplying fish stalls with products caught in Japanese waters, but they continue to suffer,” said Lee Seung-bu, a dealer who distributes fish products to market stalls. He said his profits are off by more than 40 percent.
(Excerpt) Read more at koreajoongangdaily.joins.com ...
Well, the fish will be getting a break.
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