The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) recently released a report on females’ launching of new farm businesses at rural societies. MAFF has surveyed those activities in the country every two years since 2009.
According to the MAFF’s latest report, a number of agricultural businesses started by women farmers totals 9580 as of March 31, 2015, 139 less than the previous survey conducted in fiscal 2012. A main factor for the decrease is retirements of aged females.
74 percent of the total businesses operated by female farmers in the country are involved in food processing, followed by distribution and marketing of farm products (70 percent) and agricultural production (25 percent).
Out of the 9580 business organizations, 4939 are operated by individual females, while 4641 are managed by a group of female farmers.
Annual sales of their businesses are showing a trend of enlargement in their business scales. A number of farm businesses operated by an individual female marketing products of more than 10 million yen in a year increased by 13 percentage points over the previous survey. Female group’s businesses with an annual turnover of more than 50 million yen also increased in number by 9 percentage point.