The Norinchukin Bank announced Friday, Feb. 28, that it has signed a partnership agreement with Japan Agricultural Corporations Association to create a business support project team in the association with the bank official as a team leader.
The team will offer management consultation services for agricultural corporations, including loans and developing sales channels, in order to support such corporations and help them strengthen ties with the Japan Agricultural Cooperatives group, which the bank is a member.
As the government is introducing the more competition-based agricultural policy in fiscal 2014, focusing on farmland consolidation and abolishment of rice production adjustment, the bank hopes to provide agricultural corporations with knowhow on capital investments, improving management efficiency, creating value-added products, exporting and finding business partners.
Out of some 1,800 members of the association, more than 70 percent are also members of the JA group. But agricultural corporations’ shipments to JA and business transactions with the bank remain low. The bank hopes the agreement will help increase the corporations’ relationship with the JA group.
The bank’s Chief Executive Officer Yoshio Kono said while it is important for the agriculture industry to cooperate with business sectors, it is necessary first for the agriculture industry to work together among themselves to clarify the actual needs of farmers and revitalize the agriculture and food industries and regional areas.
Association Chairman Shigenori Fujioka said he believes it is necessary to cross various borders to establish a network, adding that the association hopes to join hands with Norinchukin, which has been a supporting member of the association from the start, to sustain domestic agriculture.
(March 1, 2014)