OKAYAMA, Jan. 6 — Japan is the world’s fourth biggest consumer of coffee in terms of volume, but it imported 36,0287 tons of green coffee beans in 2024 while the annual domestic production is estimated to be only about 10 tons. Attempts have been made in recent years to establish a production base for coffee beans in the country, which has a high demand for the product but produces a very small quantity of its own. A company in Okayama Prefecture newly set up a coffee production division, aiming to harvest a maximum of 500 kilograms of green coffee beans in a few years when its coffee trees mature. It … Continue reading →

The Hokuren Federation of Agricultural Cooperatives of Hokkaido, Japan, held a press conference in Sapporo City, Hokkaido, to announce a new advertising series featuring Masahiro Matsuoka, a former member of the Japanese pop-rock band TOKIO. The ad series features Matsuoka as the King of Milk Land to highlight the deliciousness and delightfulness of Hokkaido’s milk and dairy products. Hokuren aims to increase milk consumption, which is currently declining, by having Matsuoka, a Hokkaido native popular among people of all ages, as a PR man. The campaign is part of the initiative named “Milk Land Hokkaido” that runs to boost milk consumption based on the funds from dairy product producers. The … Continue reading →

TOKYO, Dec. 21 — Wooden boxes used to ship apples are proving popular as a decorative piece of furniture to add a stylish touch to homes and stores. Shinsaka Seikan in the town of Nanbu in Aomori Prefecture is a long-established manufacturer, which has been producing fruit shipping crates for more than 70 years. Even as plastic shipping containers have become the mainstream, the company’s craftsmen continue to handcraft wooden cases using red pine grown in Aomori Prefecture. A decline in demand for wooden shipping boxes prompted the firm to create and sell smaller crates for interior decoration purposes. In 2022, the boxes attracted attention after they were used as … Continue reading →

TOKYO, Dec. 16 — A variety of sweets made from Japan-made rice flour are coming to the market for the Christmas season. Sponge cake and Stollen made from rice flour offer a fluffy texture and are proving popular, particularly among people with wheat allergy. Many producers of rice flour desserts are seeing a large increase in the number of pre-orders compared with last year, indicating the possibility of rice flour sweets becoming a standard in winter. Tsuno Co., a rice oil manufacturer, sells Stollen made from rice flour as a winter only product at 1,728 yen. The firm uses rice flour made from the Hinohikari brand rice. While Stollen usually … Continue reading →