Category Archives: Farm Policy

TOKYO, Jan. 20 ― Japan’s food exports rose for the ninth consecutive month in November 2018, thanks to largely to appetite for wagyu beef and fruits in neighboring Asian countries, official data has showed. Total shipments of agriculture products, processed foods and seafood soared 9% to 85.2 billion yen in November from a year earlier, according to the agriculture ministry. The primary agricultural products, which constitute half of total agricultural exports, increased 12% to 52.2 billion yen. Among those products, wagyu beef jumped 39% to 2.7 billion yen, as Cambodia solidified its position as the largest destination for Japanese wagyu beef, with value doubling to 800 million yen. Wagyu beef … Continue reading →

TOKYO, Feb. 10 – Exports of Japanese beef and sake topped a 20-billion-yen mark in 2018, and Japan’s green tea shipments abroad reached a new all-time high, according to Finance Ministry statistics on exports of farm produce and processed foods. The increase in exports is mainly attributable to strong demand in markets in Asian countries and the United States. Agriculture, forestry and fishery exports in 2018 showed a preliminary figure of 906.8 billion yen, up 12 percent from the previous year to hit a record high for the sixth straight year, buoyed by increased shipments of beef, sake and green tea. Exports of Japanese beef totaled 24.7 billion yen, up … Continue reading →

TOKYO, Jan. 13 ― Japan’s imports of shiitake spawn, which are essentially mushroom seeds, will likely hit a record volume in 2018, exceeding the 2017 record, official data have shown. Shiitake are among the most popular of many varieties of mushrooms eaten by the fungi-mad Japanese. Each year, families and restaurants stew, fry and grill hundreds of tons of these brown umbrella-shaped vegetables. Shiitake spawn imports to Japan in the first eleven months through November 2018 totaled 18,650 metric tons, already exceeding the 2017 full-year import record of 15,649 metric tons, according to the finance ministry. If the December figure remains the same level a year earlier, then the imports … Continue reading →

TOKYO, Jan. 30 ― Japan’s outbreak of classical swine fever, also known as hog cholera, has continued to spread with a seventh case identified on Jan. 29, since the country first reported the disease in September last year. The seventh case was discovered in Kakamigahara, Gifu prefecture, central Japan, the agriculture ministry said on Jan. 29. The announcement was made only three days after Gifu prefecture lifted restrictions of movement and shipment on hog farms on Jan. 26. “It is so regrettable,” Agriculture Minister Takamori Yoshikawa said at a Jan. 29 press conference. “I have instructed officials to work out new measures for tighter control of the disease.” Gifu prefectural … Continue reading →

TOKYO, Jan. 27 ― Gifu prefecture on Jan. 26 lifted restrictions of movement and shipment on hog farms, which were imposed since an outbreak of classical swine fever, also known as hog cholera, in domestic pigs in central Japan in September 2018. On Sept. 9, the agriculture ministry reported a case of classical swine fever at a farm in Gifu prefecture for the first time in 26 years. The remaining 610 pigs were culled to contain the outbreak and depopulation of the farm was completed. As a result, Japan suspended exports of pork and other pork products. Since then, Gifu prefecture employed measures to stamp out the disease that include … Continue reading →