New demand must be cultivated overseas to help highly motivated young people in Japan.
The Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry and the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry have established a joint team to discuss measures to expand exports of agricultural and fishery products.
The team will provide overseas market information for producers and businesses interested in exporting. They say it also plans to assist in sales promotion and other activities in exporting destinations.
The government has set a target of boosting the annual value of such exports, which currently stands at the level of 800 billion yen, to 1 trillion yen by 2019.
Contraction of the domestic market is inevitable due to population decline and other factors. It is significant to explore new revenue sources overseas.
It is reasonable for the government to try to put forth a practical strategy by strengthening its cooperation with producers and firms.
Exports of farm and fishery products have been on the rise. Behind this is the emergence of a Japanese food boom overseas due to the increase in health consciousness among consumers.
To further expand exports of these products, greater efforts are called for to prevent this boom from ending up as a passing phenomenon.
It is essential to focus on exporting adequately selected products by meticulously analyzing consumer preferences, which differ from destination to destination.
In China, large scallops are highly popular as sushi ingredients. In Taiwan, apples produced in Aomori Prefecture and nagaimo yams from Tokachi, Hokkaido, have a good reputation.
The government should bolster assistance programs for market research overseas.
Take advantage of FTA
To make Japanese agricultural and fishery products, which are comparatively high in price, accepted in foreign countries, it is indispensable to assure taste and safety commensurate with the prices. Producers and distributors, for their part, need to ensure strict quality control.
Japanese farmers and fishermen have acquired international Global GAP (Good Agricultural Practice) certification at a low rate. They must turn their eyes more to overseas markets and accelerate efforts to break into them.
How to link domestic producers with foreign buyers is also a challenge.
The joint team will undertake a project to sell Japanese farm and fishery products via a major internet mail-order company in Singapore. As an initial step, the team plans to sell from November a total of more than 200 fruit and vegetable items to be shipped by 40 producers.
A free trade agreement makes it inevitable for domestic products to be exposed to competition with foreign products, but provides a big chance for expansion of their exports.
When the economic partnership agreement between Japan and the European Union takes effect, as early as next year, tariffs imposed on a wide range of Japanese exports, including fishery products and beef, will be abolished. It will be necessary for the private and public sectors to cooperate in drawing up an export expansion strategy.
In the wake of the 2011 disaster at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, 25 countries and territories are still restricting imports of Japanese food products. The government should call for lifting restrictions by explaining in detail the safety of Japanese products based on scientific data.
(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Aug. 24, 2018)
Read more from The Japan News at https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/
