Category Archives: Food & Agriculture

Fukuoka research team develops dual temperature zone container to be tested for fruit and vegetable exports to Hong Kong

FUKUOKA, April 3 – A research team in Fukuoka Prefecture has developed a dual temperature zone container for shipment of fruit and vegetables, which will be tested to export Japanese farm produce to Hong Kong starting later this year. The container can be divided into two compartments of equal size with temperature gap of up to 20 degrees centigrade, enabling shipment of chilled cargo and frozen cargo together in one container, reducing the risk of damaging temperature-sensitive products. The container also comes with a plasma generator to keep the products fresh. Developers hope the containers will pave the way for mixed-load, small-lot exports of high-quality Japanese produce. A research team … Continue reading

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Japan’s Kindai University to offer IPR program on agriculture

TOKYO, April 1 — Japan’s Kindai University is to offer an agribusiness program on intellectual property rights related to food products at its agriculture faculty from September. The program is a first attempt by the agriculture ministry to collaborate with a university on this subject. The ministry hopes investing in education on IPRs may help prepare a new generation to lead Japan’s agriculture industry. The move comes at a time when theft of Japanese agriculture breeds is hurting the nation’s exports. In 2015, Japan set up its GI system to guarantee the protected status of food products, helping farmers to differentiate their products from competing products in the market. Moreover, … Continue reading

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Japan distributes wagyu beef guidebooks for overseas visitors

TOKYO, March 29 — The Japan Livestock Products Export Promotion Council (J-LEC) has stepped up efforts to expand exports of Japanese wagyu beef as the meat is gaining global popularity. The group has published guidebooks on Japanese wagyu beef in English, and Cantonese as well as Japanese. The guidebooks were set to distribute to hotels across the country from April. The guidebooks include some recipes that use Japanese wagyu beef, “so that overseas visitors can enjoy the rich taste and fine texture of wagyu beef when they return home,” said a J-LEC official. The group has also produced promotional videos on Japanese wagyu beef to be aired for passengers on … Continue reading

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Japan to probe foreign ownership of agricultural land: minister

TOKYO, March 24 — Japan’s Agriculture Minister Ken Saito has said the government will investigate for the first time if there is any farmland available for sale to overseas buyers. “We will have a good look at foreign ownership in farmland,” Saito told Japan’s upper house agriculture committee on March 23. The nation’s Farmland Act does not permit any businesses or foreigners to buy agricultural land. So, the government has never investigated farmland sales to overseas buyers before. Saito pointed out that Japan has heavily restricted farmland ownership, for example, the majority of shareholders have to be farmers. “In theory, as long as farmland purchases comply with the legislation, foreign … Continue reading

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Japanese sake brewery in UK gets rice from farmers in Japan

TOKYO, March 21 — Japan’s largest farmers’ group has exported rice to the UK’s first Japanese-run sake brewery in the heart of the English countryside for the first time. Sake is a Japanese alcoholic drink made of fermented rice. A bold move came when Osaka-based Dojima Sake Brewery Co. opened its first UK facility to offer a taste of the traditional Japanese beverage at Fordham Abbey in Cambridgeshire. The Japanese sake maker asked the National Federation of Agriculture Cooperative Association (ZEN-NOH), the marketing arm of JA group, to ship Japanese-grown rice to the new UK facility. Test brewing is to start in April. This is significant because there have already … Continue reading

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