Category Archives: Food & Agriculture

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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Singapore’s Changi Airport shop offers Japanese food-themed

SINGAPORE, Oct. 22 — A grocery store specializing in Japanese-grown farm goods is making its presence felt at Changi Airport in Singapore, Asia’s most popular airport, after being open for only a short time. The Premium Japan Farmers’ Market opened in September and features Japanese-grown food, including wagyu beef, sake and rice milk. The best-selling product is a ready-to-eat boxed lunch, the iconic bento, according to ADiRECT Singapore, the operator of the shop. The menu’s main staples are Japanese-grown rice, beef, grilled salmon and vegetables at a price of 980 yen. All the products are supplied by Zen-Noh International, a subsidiary of Japan’s National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Association, known … Continue reading

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【Editorial】Efforts begin to market Japan-made rice flour – the world’s highest-quality gluten-free food – in Europe (Oct. 7)

Japan’s rice products industry will kick off a sales campaign on Oct. 8 to promote domestically-made rice flour in Europe, focusing on the gluten-free labeling created by the Japanese government and industry to certify nongluten products based on the strictest standards in the world. The campaign deserves attention as the pioneering efforts to export rice products. Japan’s domestic market for farm produce is declining due to the falling birthrate and aging population. This is especially true for rice, whose demand has been shrinking by some 80,000 tons every year. The recent policy regarding rice is a typical downsizing, and rice farmers have been reducing production in line with the decreasing … Continue reading

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ZEN-NOH suggesting new ways of eating rice in collaboration with all-you-can-eat Sweets Paradise cafés in Japan

TOKYO, Oct. 25 – National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations (ZEN-NOH) started offering rice parfait at Sweets Paradise buffet restaurants in three major cities in Japan. The collaboration between ZEN-NOH and the buffet chain restaurants aims to propose new ways of eating rice particularity to young women. The original menu is to be offered until November 5, 2017. The shops began offering three types of rice dishes in a parfait glass, served with diced avocado, baby leaves, imitation crabmeat, and soy ponzu-dressing jelly sauce, for example. To get all the attention of Instagram photographers, particularly of young female users of the popular Internet-based photo-sharing service, they are very photogenic. They are … Continue reading

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Campaign kicks off to support children in need by eating onigiri rice balls

TOKYO, Oct. 6 – Eat onigiri and change the world — a nonprofit organization kicked off a campaign on Oct. 5, asking people to post photographs related to onigiri rice balls on social media to provide school meals for children in need. Under the Onigiri Action campaign organized by TABLE FOR TWO, for every onigiri-related photo posted on the organization’s website or on SNS with a hashtag #OnigiriAction, the campaign’s sponsors and supporters will donate 100 yen, equivalent to five school meals delivered to children in Asia and Africa. The group has been organizing the campaign every year since 2015 around Oct. 16, the day when the United Nations celebrates … Continue reading

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