TOKYO, Nov. 27 — Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has pledged to expand Japanese agri-food exports and boost farmers’ incomes.
“Building sustainable overseas sales channels is the key to increase farmers’ income,” said Abe at a Nov. 24 meeting held by the agriculture ministry to promote Japanese agri-food exports.
Abe pointed to the Japan-EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) as well as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).
He said: “These trade deals create an opportunity to boost exports as they remove tariffs imposed on Japanese agri-foods.”
The Japanese government wants to increase agriculture exports and has set a target to boost the annual value of agricultural exports to 1 trillion yen by 2020.