Sunday, August 19, 2012

Chiba Produce Fair in Thailand - "All-Out Offensive to Sell Chiba Pears", Says Sankei Shinbun Article


According to the article, wealthy Thais were snapping up pears grown and harvested in Chiba for as much as 1,000 yen (US$12.67) a piece.

The event in Bangkok was attended by the governor of Chiba Prefecture, a former popular TV actor with little acting skills.

Wealthy Thais will be snapping up peaches from Fukushima, too.

From Sankei Shinbun (8/19/2012; part):

県産ナシをタイで売り込め! 現地スーパーで千葉フェア

"Let's sell our pears in Thailand!" Chiba Fair in the supermarket in Thailand

タイ訪問中の森田健作千葉県知事は19日、バンコクの日系スーパーでの物産展「千葉フェア」に出席し、ナシをはじめとする県の名産品をPRした。タイの果物市場には他国も進出しているが、県は質が高くタイではまだ供給が少ないナシを富裕層に売り込んでいきたい考えだ。

Kensaku Morita, governor of Chiba who's visiting Thailand, attended the "Chiba Fair" at a Japanese supermarket in Bangkok to promote the popular produce from Chiba including pears. There are other countries already in the fruit market in Thailand. Chiba Prefecture plans to target the wealthy Thais to push Chiba's high-quality pears which are still in small supply in Thailand.

千葉フェアは、バンコク市内の富裕層が多く住む地域に立地するイオン(千葉市)現地法人の店舗で、5日間にわたって開催。特設コーナーには果物、野菜、鮮魚など、さまざまな県産品が並んだ。

"Chiba Fair" is being held for 5 days at a subsidiary of AEON (headquartered in Chiba City) in part of Bangkok where the wealthy people live. In the special corner in the supermarket, various products from Chiba are displayed, including fruits, vegetables, and fresh fish.

この日は特設コーナー近くのステージで、銚子産マグロの解体ショーが行われ、続いて森田知事も登場。「千葉はナシが日本一。今日食べてもらって、おいしさを知ってください」とアピールし、用意していた白井市産の旬のナシを来場者に振る舞った。

On August 19, they cut up a whole tuna from Choshi on the stage near the special corner, and Governor Morita himself took the stage. He promoted the pears, saying "Chiba has the No.1 pears in Japan. Please try today, and see how delicious they are." He then handed out the pears grown and harvested in season in Shirai City.

千葉フェアに並んだナシは時期や品種、輸送方法などの兼ね合いで、1個1千円近くと高価だったが買い求める客もおり、現地の輸入業者は「高価でも贈答用として需要がある」と話す。

The pears at the Chiba Fair were expensive, at nearly 1,000 yen per pear due to the seasonality, types of pears, and method of transportation. But there were customers who were buying them. The local importer says, "There will be a demand as gifts, even if they are expensive."


According to Chiba Prefecture's website, pears in Shirai City were tested in July this year to see if they contained radioactive cesium. The results were:

Monitoring test using the germanium semiconductor detector: ND (detection limit 2.2 Bq/kg for cesium-134, 2.5 Bq/kg for cesium-137)

Simple screening test using NaI scintillation survey meter (from 17 locations): ND (detection limit 17 to 19 Bq/kg)


Zero information on the volume (or weight) of the samples, how densely they were packed to be tested, and how long they were tested. (I guess the officials think citizens are dumber than them.)

AEON Group is headed by the older brother of the vice prime minister Katsuya Okada.

13 comments:

Apolline said...

Hello, what do you think of this WSJ article :
http://on.wsj.com/S73JcC

Cesium 134 is written twice in the above post (in monitoring test) I think the first is cesium-137.

Anonymous said...

The local importer says, "There will be a demand as gifts, even if they are expensive."

Just like Chernobyl mushrooms and vegtable gifts for you hated boss or a good gift for evil stepmother.

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

Helios, where do you see the writer mentions cesium in that article? I couldn't find any. And I wish the US researchers stop talking in rem. I have zero sense for that unit, as my radiation self-education started in March last year and it's been micro- milli- sievert...

Anonymous said...

Hélios, hello, I think you would not ask such a question if you were to deal for good with these problems for your own health and not out of pure Curiosity, as if you were living on Mars or something...
All this is very painfull to live, that's the way I feel it when I stay in Japan, and when I am home reading news thinking about my next stay.
Neither your question nor the admin's answer would give me reliable data - although I read this blog quite often, as one of the best ones around.
Unless you are really involved in this tragedy, it might not be very relevant to ask questions that are not of your business and have "private life" kind of answers.

Cheers anyway.

Anonymous said...

Following my own post at 6:AM
to make it clear, when I wrote "private life" I meant "do what you can" (which is private and should not be a subject of despise) in a dangerous situation where information is all scrambled up.

Anonymous said...

Primavera-san,
I feel your pain -- my radiological education too started on March 2011 and as soon as I got used to micro/milli Sv, Bq, Bq/kg, MBq/km2 and their typical ranges... they delivered me a geiger counter in Rem!!
If it can be of any comfort, think of my disgraceful geiger counter whenever you feel some Rem pain :)
おやすみなさい
Beppe

Atomfritz said...

@ Helios,

this article was written by Mr. Muller of the UCB Nuclear Engineering Faculty. You cannot expect an objective article by paid nuclear shills like that one.

He concentrates on cancers only, ignoring the fact that cancers are only a rare, terminal consequence of irradiation.

Chronic Immunodeficiencies, weakness, and so on are the major consequences of radiation.
Rocky Flats downwinders mostly suffered of those (it was the Denver plutonium factory, now dismantled).

These dominating effects must be completely ignored by pro-nuke propagandists, who need to focus on cancers to make people think that radiation damages only a small minority of people.

My personal opinion about this article is that it is pro-nuke disinformation.

Atomfritz said...

@ LaPrimavera & Beppe:

It's not that bad. Russians and Americans stick to historic units.

Simply divide Roentgen and rem by 100 to get a rough Sievert estimate.

Examples:
-Radiation at shore of Lake Karachay before covering with concrete: 600 Roentgen, roughly 6 sievert/h.
-1964 Wood River criticality accident: one guy got 10,000 rads in a few seconds = roughly 100 sievert, died after 49 hrs. Two other guys got 100 respective 60 rem = about 1 respective 0.6 sievert, both survived.
-food contamination of, say, 100 picocurie -> multiply by 3.7E10 = 3.7 Bq

Actually I prefer curies over becquerels in woholesale contexts.
It's somewhat more comprehensible to me to read "Vermont Yankee is licensed to release 20 curies of tritium annually" instead of abstract 740 gigabecquerels.

Or even Fukushima, which released about a megacurie of iodine-131, which is somewhat less abstract than talking of petabecquerels imho.

Anonymous said...

The Thais generally live to 48- 50 years of age, so I dont think the tainted fruit gonna do much harm. Thais cook mainly in aluminium, black Teflon, use microwave ovens, fill up their food with msg, and sugar; cook their veges, apart from a sprinkling of freshh herbs. They eat white rice all day, and now partake in the USAs 5 million tons of high fructose corn syrup in many manufactured foods.

Apolline said...

@ Ultraman,

When I talked about twice cesium-134, it is in your post "Chiba fair" ;-)

Thanks to others about my link.

arevamirpal::laprimavera said...

@Helios, so it was, LOL. Thank you.

Chibaguy said...

I think the city is Shiroi city in Chiba which puts it in the area of Kashiwa. Anyway, not good for Thais.

Anonymous said...

anybody that eats japanese food products are not very clever. I mean , the place is radiactive, and any products from the fukishima region is a no go
.http://fukushima-diary.com/2012/08/cesium-measured-from-tofu-in-aichi-mid-japan/

http://enenews.com/mystery-yellow-substance-on-rooftop-near-tokyo-has-cesium-at-177000-bqkg-video

http://rense.com/1.mpicons/audio_icon.gif

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