The nation's farmers are the latest to feel the ripple effects of nationwide coronavirus countermeasures.
Farmers who supply food to restaurants and other eating establishments find themselves in a bind as the voluntary closures or reduced working hours at those businesses has led to a plunge in demand for agricultural products.
Even with the lifting of the government's declaration of a state of emergency, it will likely take some time for izakaya pubs and the like to return to full-fledged operations, raising further concerns among farmers about an uncertain future.
Motoki Corp. in Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture, which produces and sells quail eggs, has seen orders from yakitori and bento shops plunge, causing sales to drop more than half in April.
Although the company aims to expand sales channels by developing processed food products, Motoki President Yuichiro Motoki, 55, said, "If orders don't pick up, it's going to be a tough road ahead."
Most quail eggs are for commercial use and, according to the Tokyo Metropolitan Central Wholesale Market, the volume handled dropped by 83% in April compared with the same month last year.
Even chicken eggs, which have been selling well for home consumption as many people refrain from going out, have seen a 46% drop in overall volume mainly due to sluggish demand at hotels and izakaya pubs.
There also has been decreases in many other common ingredients used in restaurant dishes, such as ginkgo nuts (down 82%), wasabi (down 43%) and parsley (down 33%).
Dairy milk has not only been affected by the closing of restaurants, but by the reduction of school lunches as schools remain closed.
It can be expected that shipments of agricultural products will increase once the state of emergency is lifted across the country and measures are eased for restaurants to reopen and extend their business hours.
At an agricultural corporation in the Kansai region that supplies eateries across the nation with fresh vegetables, sales fell by about 70% between late March and mid-April. However, when the state of emergency was lifted in some prefectures in mid-May, the decline recovered to half of that in the same period last year.
However, there is little optimism among farmers for the future.
"We still find it hard to forecast what the volume of shipments to our clients will be," said an official of a Kanto region agricultural corporation that sells lettuce and other products to restaurants in commercial facilities.
One reason for such uncertainty is that as izakaya bars and other establishments reopen, they will also limit the number of customers allowed inside to prevent the spread of infections. It remains unknown when they will be able to return to full-fledged operations.
Kushikatsu Tanaka Holdings Co., which has 110 directly-managed outlets of its fried skewers restaurants, had reopened 80 by Thursday. Many, however, are using only one-fourth of the seating as a means of social distancing.
"The self-restraint mode still continues," said a PR official.
The operator of the Tsukada Nojo izakaya chain decided to keep all of its restaurants closed through the end of this month in principle as part of measures to prepare for a second wave of infections.
The government plans to establish a system to provide subsidies of up to 1.5 million yen to farmers seeking to develop new market networks, as part of an additional economic stimulus package to be included in the second supplementary budget proposal for fiscal 2020.
The policy is to strengthen business support for farmers as their difficulties may continue depending on what trend the demand for food services takes.
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