Japan To Teach The World To Eat

[Mulboyne]

Photo: Ansel Adams
Asia Times: Japan revs up farm export drive

After years of international pressure over farm trade liberalization, Japan now believes the best defense is a good offense and is avidly promoting agricultural exports as a way to turn the tables. While still a major food importer, the country has set a new, ambitious goal to double exports of agricultural and marine products amid growing concerns about food security..."Japan should export safe and tasty food rather than just importing. Let's change our defensive attitude in farming to a more positive one and spread the Japanese diet to the world," Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said in Tokyo on Saturday at a government-sponsored annual food fair. He said high-quality Japanese exports of beef, apples, strawberries and rice are popular with "foodies" around the world....more...

FG Thread: Please Use Chopsticks FG Thread: Japanese rice versus the rest of the world FG Thread: Japan Loses Cherry To Australia FG Thread: Japan Frustrated By Rice Ban
[t]japan[/t] [t]tokyo[/t] [t]koizumi[/t] [t]food[/t] [t]farming[/t] [t]agriculture[/t] [t]trade[/t] [t]diet[/t]

[Neo-Rio]

There was some TV show on last night about this, including Koizumi's speech. Some apple farmers from Aomori go to Taiwan and Spain to try and flog off apples to the locals. Funnily enough they find a niche. The Japanese apple was so damn expensive they were able to sell them in upmarket food halls (probably the only place which buying expensive apples would be easily backwards-rationalized).

Actually Japanese fruit is unexpectedly good (e.g. strawberries), must be thanks to Fuji-san's past volcanic activities.