JA-ZENCHU opens website to introduce best rice brands of 47 prefectures of Japan

TOKYO, Oct. 30 – Central Union of Agricultural Cooperatives (JA-ZENCHU) launched a new website that introduces best rice brands from all of 47 prefectures of Japan on October 30, 2017. Viewers can search for mostly-recommended rice brands by specific characters such as flavor or stickiness or even the type of dishes with which they go well. The site opened as a part of JA Group website. There are individual pages for each rice brand that contains a radar chart of scores in eight aspects, as well as a positioning map based on the taste. The new website will hopefully help JA-ZENCHU to publicize distinctive qualities of different rice brands and … Continue reading

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Food product makers and retailers changing best-before date labeling to reduce food waste and discounting

TOKYO, Oct. 29 – More food manufacturers and retailers are adopting durable life labeling of a year and month without a day instead of best-before dates in a bid to provide extended best-before period for food products and reduce unnecessary disposal and discounts, as “food loss” – discarding food which can still be eaten – is increasingly becoming a social issue. The new labeling, introduced mainly for processed foods such as seasonings and beverages, also helps to improve the efficiency of distribution and inventory management, and many companies are likely to follow suit. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, some 6.21 million tons of food that are … Continue reading

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Japanese fruit, flower growers and grocery stores making unique efforts to use Halloween to stimulate demands

TOKYO, Oct. 27 – A growing number of agricultural producing areas in Japan are introducing new products and promotional twists unique to Halloween to make the best use of the shopping season around the annual event celebrated each year on October 31. Flower growers, for example, proposed the use of flowers in pumpkin orange and other matching colors while persimmon producers asked consumers to post original recipes for persimmon dishes, all in order to stimulate the demands. Some grocery stores sold new Halloween-themed fruits and vegetables to capture the attention of shoppers. “How about orange, yellow and dark red gerbera daisies for your Halloween decoration?” An agricultural cooperative in Shizuoka … Continue reading

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Japan’s farm minister pledges to stick to reform after election

TOKYO, Oct. 25 — Japan’s Agriculture Minister Ken Saito has said he will keep advancing farm reforms “with humbleness,” following Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s recent landslide election victory. The governing Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its coalition partner Komeito clinched a sweeping win in a national election on Oct. 22, with a two-thirds majority in the lower house of the parliament. “During the campaign, I received a lot of criticism about our LDP,” Saito confessed at a press conference on Oct. 24. When he visited rural areas during the campaign, Saito said, farmers raised concerns about the Abe administration’s plan to abolish in 2018 the decades-old rice support program limiting … Continue reading

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New colorful attraction growing in ex-rice field in Tokushima Prefecture

TOKUSHIMA, Oct. 26 – A pond with approximately 5,000 Nishikigoi carp in Minami town, Tokushima Prefecture, has become a new colorful attraction for tourists. The carp are grown by a 74-year-old farmer in his ex-rice field. Four years ago, the farmer, Hisao Akiyama, turned his 10-are rice field into a koi pond of approximately 40 centimeters deep to grow Nishikigoi carp to launch a new business. He covered the pond by nets to protect the fish from birds and named it “Nishikigoi-no-ike (pond of Nishikigoi).” His carp grew pretty well with no outbreak of diseases in the pond in the mountains that provide rich flow of water. One day, he … Continue reading

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