“Safety and security” ranked the first for two straight years among 2017 marketing keywords recommended by distributors in Japan, the Japan Agricultural News revealed on January 25 in a report on its latest survey of 2017 marketing transactions of agricultural and livestock products.
A number of fruits and vegetables wholesalers particularly in the Kanto Region made a forecast that imports of farm products will increase due to unfavorable weather condition in 2017, which seems to be one of factors bringing about the result of the survey.
With regard to imports of farm products, however, 58 percent of polled distributors responded to the survey by saying “planning to maintain the status quo,” followed by 18 percent of “reducing imports” and 17 percent of “increasing imports.”
Some of wholesalers in the Chubu Region, planning to reduce imports of farm products, responded to the poll, saying “Consumers increasingly like to purchase home-grown products.”
“Depreciation of the yen against the dollar due to the economic policy of Donald Trump’s new administration” was cited as a reason for import reduction by lots of meat processors.
Many distributors polled by the survey, including fruits and vegetables wholesalers in the Kansai Region, made responses, saying “It is a basic policy of business to purchase home-grown farm products, but we need to import products from overseas to make up for poor local harvests.”
The survey of the Japan Agricultural News clearly reconfirmed the importance of stability in agricultural production in the country.