Singapore will remove its requirements on food imported from Fukushima, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) stated in a press release.

The announcement was made by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in a phone call with Japan's Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide on May 25, where they also spoke at length about the Covid-19 situation and the cancellation of the Shangri-La Dialogue.

What exactly did the requirements entail?

According to MFA, the requirements entailed subjecting food imports from Fukushima to pre-export tests and having Certificates of Origin.

The Japan Times (JT) reported that the tests are to check for radioactive caesium.

MFA elaborated that the requirements are being lifted as Singapore is satisfied with the "food safety surveillance results".

Removal of requirements follows lifting of ban in Feb. 2020

The removal of requirements follows a lifting of the ban on food imports from Fukushima in Feb. 2020.

The ban had been first implemented in 2011 when the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant suffered meltdowns, leaking radioactive material into the air, soil and sea, after it was devastated by a tsunami and an earthquake.

The predecessor of the Singapore Food Agency (SFA), the Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority (AVA), banned the import of some food products from 11 prefectures in Japan as a result of the accident.

During the lifting of the ban in 2020, SFA added that it had not detected any radioactive contaminant in food imports from Japan in the preceding five years.

Food products from Japan form small proportion of food imports

According to a 2011 statement by the Singapore government, seafood imported from Japan in 2010 constituted less than two per cent of the total seafood imports by quantity.

The import of other food products from Japan was negligible at less than 0.5 per cent of Singapore's food imports.

In 2018, food imports from Japan made up less than 1 per cent of Singapore's total imports.

Imports from Fukushima prefecture made up less than 0.1 per cent of total food imports in the same year.

https://mothership.sg/2020/02/singapore-fukushima-japan-foodp

Top left image screenshot via National Geographic, right Photo by Shiho Fukada for The Washington Post via Getty Images