China has resumed imports of Japanese koi fish this month for the first time in a year, a Japanese government official and a pond fish farm authorized for such transactions confirmed on Tuesday.

As a result, six fish farms in Niigata, Fukuoka and Hiroshima prefectures are eligible to export koi to China, according to Japan’s Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry.

Imports of Japanese koi were suspended in November 2023, when Chinese authorities stopped renewing import permits to fish farms once they expired from the end of October 2023.