Anastasia Balezdrova
"After the devastating earthquake in Japan we inform you that none of the products we use is imported from Japan," reads the sign at the entrance of one of the sushi bars in downtown Athens. The disaster, which caused serious pollution of the area around the Fukushima nuclear power plant with radiation, happened less than a month ago but many Athenians decided to give up their favorite Japanese dish at least for the moment and "just in case."
The sushi and the Asian cuisine became very popular in Greece about 4 years ago. Restaurants offering the exotic dishes appeared not only in the city centre of Thessaloniki and some major Greek cities, but in most of the high-end suburbs. And because many of the customers, despite their enthusiasm, can not quite decide to try the raw food the dishes are often prepared in the European manner with frying and other heat treatments.
"The people are more reserved, more fearful after the nuclear accident in Japan. Our turnover fell by around 20%. Most of the people believe that many of the products we use are imported from Japan, and we, in turn, try to convince them that we do not use products from there," told GRReporter Sakis Gavalekas, manager of My Sushi restaurant in the Athens district of Kolonaki.
"The things have changed swiftly within a year. The economic crisis caused a small outflow of customers, but in general it does not surprise us, since we expected it more or less. But what happened in Japan seriously disturbed our work."
The traditional Japanese products that these restaurants use are tofu or soy cheese, soy sauce and seaweed. Sakis, however, argues that they are imported from other Asian countries.
"The rice we use is imported from California, USA. The fish is mainly Greek, and salmon is usually imported from France and Norway.
My supplier is in England. I import everything I need from there. If he can not supply me at some point, then I look for the product in other Asian countries like Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand and China. Products similar to the Japanese can be found there.
We do not import fish from Japan. First, because it is not cheaper and secondly, because I think that they would not want to export. The consumption of fish in Japan is very high and the country even imports quantities from other countries."
According to Sakis, the consumers hurried to worry about the danger of imported products contaminated with radiation.
"For example, we have products of the last imports we made from England 3-4 months ago in our warehouses and work with them. How could the products contaminated with radiation get to Greece so quickly? I think this concern would normally be expressed in a few months. Then one could assume that the Japanese might try to sell their products in order not to throw them out, but the current response is very premature. "
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