Japanese seafood firms are set to begin processing scallops from Hokkaido in Vietnam, as China’s ban on Japanese seafood pushes the industry to seek alternatives.

Foodison, a seafood e-retailer, is partnering with firms including trading houses Nosui and Ocean Road and wholesaler Ebisu Shokai on a shipping container of unshelled scallops, or more than 20 tons.

Under the terms of the arrangement, Ocean Road is mandated to purchase scallops from Ebisu and export them to Vietnam, where they will be processed and sent back to Japan to be sold to retailers and restaurants by Foodison, Nosui, and Ebisu. Ocean Road has prior experience processing shrimp and crabs in Vietnam for sale in Japan.

The initial batch of Hokkaido scallops has already been sent to Vietnam, where the processing facility will produce half-shell scallops for cooking as well as frozen scallops and sushi-grade meat to be eaten raw.

The head of the frozen fish division of Nosui, which sells processed seafood for commercial use, said that if product prices came down, then they could be used by big convenience store operators and conveyor-belt sushi chains.

Labor costs are only 20% to 30% as high in Vietnam as compared to Japan for processing seafood. For scallops for raw or sushi consumption, the price is expected to be lower than for products processed in Japan, even after taking transportation costs into account.

Requiring less work, scallops on the half shell are expected to be priced similarly to their Japanese counterparts.