SPUTNIK Moscow, Nov. 17 -- Russia's SPUTNIK news agency calculated based on Japanese statistics that since the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant began to drain water, Japan's exports of fish and seafood products have been cut in half, from 44,700 tons in July to 23,600 tons in September.

On August 24, Japan began dumping water into the sea that had accumulated as it cooled emergency reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Earlier, the agency reported that sales of fish products fell by a third to 31,100 tonnes in August, with 15 countries and territories stopping imports altogether.

According to Japan's statistics agency, sales of fish and seafood on world markets continued to decline in September, down 24 percent compared to August, and the average annual sales volume fell 21 percent. Exports, meanwhile, fell 21 per cent quarter-on-quarter and 28 per cent year-on-year to $99.9 million.

The drop in sales was due to a sharp reduction in purchases by key partners in Asia: demand from China in October fell to a one-thousandth of the original, to 3.7 tons; Singapore's imports fell by three-quarters to 99 tonnes; Malaysia reduced to 185 tons; Indonesia reduced to 336 tons; Thailand reduced by 1.2 times to 4,300 tonnes.

In September, five countries stopped buying Japanese fish and seafood: Switzerland, Kuwait, Senegal, Dominican Republic and Panama; Kazakhstan, Turkey, Libya, Colombia and Bahrain have resumed imports of such products from Japan.