ZEN-NOH (National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations), a business organization of agricultural cooperatives (JA) in Japan, decided to establish a model overseas base in Singapore and build up an effective system for marketing Japanese farm products from the base by 2018.
In a next three-three plan beginning from April 2016, ZEN-NOH will promote exports of farm products shipped from Japan via its overseas base by improving processing facilities in Singapore as well as by expanding a network of distribution channels for Japanese products in the Asian region during the next three years.
The JA’s national organization will carry out pilot projects for marketing Japanese agricultural products in various countries in Asian and European regions. Results of the projects will be useful for ZEN-NOH not only to find out needs of end-users in the regions, but also to provide Japanese farmers with information on how to produce exportable commodities.
ZEN-NOH’s total export of farm products is expected to grow to 5.7 billion yen in the business year 2015. In the next three-year plan, it aims to ambitiously increase exports of major commodities such as rice, beef, vegetables and fruits produced by Japanese farmers to 12 billion yen by the end of 2018.
(March 3, 2016)