TOKYO - TWO Japanese dealers were accused on Wednesday of selling Chinese-produced grilled eels falsely labelled as domestic products, amid lingering concerns in Japan over the safety of Chinese foods.

The fisheries ministry ordered the two firms, one of them a unit of Japan's top fishery firm, to work out plans to prevent any recurrence of misconduct.

Grilled eels are highly prized by Japanese as a source of stamina, especially in energy-sapping midsummer weather.

'Chinese-made eels have sold poorly after the controversy of Chinese-made dumplings,' said Akihiro Nakatani, president of seafood importer Uohide, one of the two companies.

'We wanted to slash stockpiles worth hundreds of millions of yen,' Mr Nakatani told a news conference. One hundred million yen is worth about 925,000 (S$1,264,768).

According to the fisheries ministry, Uohide sold at least 256 tonnes of Chinese-made grilled eels, estimated to number about two million, to seafood wholesaler Shinko Gyorui in March and April.

The eels were falsely labelled as products from Isshiki, Japan's premier eel-producing region near Nagoya, central Japan, with a dummy company mentioned as the producer, a ministry statement said.

Domestic eels cost 4,000-5,000 yen per kilogram, two to three times the price of imported Chinese eels.

Shinko Gyorui, a subsidiary of Japan's top fishery firm Maruha Nichiro Holdings Inc., sold at least 49 tonnes of the eels although there were aware of the false labelling, the statement said.

The company said in a statement that it had failed to verify the place of origin of the eels as it had 'trust in a long-time business partner.'

Japan has seen a string of food scandals in recent months, with companies ranging from an elite confectioner to the Mister Donut chain and McDonald's admitting to selling products with expired ingredients.

In May, an exclusive traditional Japanese restaurant chain went out of business after it admitted to having served leftover food. -- AFP

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