The firm NRE World Bentoproduces organic box lunches for the Japanese consumer. The boxes contain organic rice and vegetables produced in California, humanely raised pork from Mexico, wild salmon from Alaska, and other staples of the organic trade. Although 90% of the product is sold to Japanese railway customers, the factory is not located in Japan or even in nearby China. Rather, NRE World Bento is located just outside of San Francisco in the mid-sized California city of Fairfield, not far from the Jelly Belly and Thompson Candy factories.
Two factors have determined the factory’s location. One is the source of the raw materials. Japan simply doesn’t produce the volume of organic rice, vegetables, and meat that World Bento needs. The company had to look elsewhere. Although the eel for the unagi bento makes a long round trip from China to the United States and back to Japan, most of the remaining ingredients are grown and raised in California. The free trade agreement between the United States and Mexico brings the cheaper Mexican livestock into World Bento’s supply chain.
Ordinarily, given Japan’s import regulations governing rice, the United States would be the last place that the company could outsource. U.S. growers have been trying to break into the Japanese market for years with little success. Herein lies the second factor: NRE Bento discovered a loophole in Japanese import regulations that permits a low tariff for imported rice if it is part of a product containing at least 20% non-rice ingredients.
Full article at Foreign Policy In Focus. (Article really is an interesting look at localvore trends and the reality of economics on that trend)
