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Lonely furrow: Little pay dirt for organic farming in Japan
INZAI, Japan, June 6, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Yuya Shibakai sometimes feels he is
ploughing a lonely furrow.
The Japanese farmer produces organic lettuce, tomatoes, carrots and other
vegetables for a market that has tasted nothing like the success of the
sector in other advanced economies.
On his farm outside Tokyo, the 32-year-old doggedly trudges along a line
of lettuces, pulling up weeds by hand.
Shibakai says it is a “daily struggle to find ways to make a profit using
a system you could call inefficient, where you have to pull all the weeds out
by hand.”
“We need a different supply system in Japan, a sustainable structure for
farmers that would also change the way our profession is seen,” added
Shibakai, who took over the business from his parents in 2009.
Organic farming occupied just 0.5 percent of Japan’s entire arable area in
2016. The country hopes to double this by 2019, Akimi Uenaka, an official in
charge of organic farming at the agriculture ministry, told AFP.
However, Uenaka admitted the development of the sector in Japan was
“slow”, as weeding and pest control take more time and organic farms struggle
to produce a “stable” output due to technical limitations.
Shibakai is one of 12,000 organic farmers in the whole country, according
to statistics from 2010, the last time the agriculture ministry collected
figures from the nascent sector.
While a craze for healthy eating has fuelled lucrative sales around the
world, the market for “bio” or organic food in Japan is estimated to be worth
just over $1 billion.
The world’s third-largest economy has a mere fraction of the global market
of around $90 billion and is dwarfed by the US ($45 billion), Germany ($11
billion), France ($8 billion) and China ($7 billion).
Moreover, while even most of these mature markets are enjoying solid
growth, the sector in Japan is stagnating.
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– Minuscule offerings –
One of the few players to dip a toe into the market is French organic
retailer “Bio c’Bon,” which has had a presence in Japan since the end of 2016
and just opened its third shop in Tokyo.
A dearth of large-scale farming means the company has to work with around
200 individual farms for its fruit and vegetables and even import other goods
— for example raspberries from Mexico, as well as organic wines and cheeses
from France.
One of the problems faced by shops offering organic food is a Japanese
obsession with how fruit and vegetables look and are packaged.
“Especially during the week, Japanese customers tend to shop very quickly
and grab pre-packaged and pre-weighed goods,” said Pascal Gerbert-Gaillard,
Asia director at Bio c’Bon.
“We are working to find a good balance between our brand and Japanese
consumption habits,” he added.
As an example, he says his staff minutely check for any tiny imperfections
in their vegetables and remove them from sale. They are donated to staff
members.
Gerbert-Gaillard said organic food is gradually finding a market among
“Japanese aged between 30 and 40, especially mothers, and expats.”
The firm has ambitious plans to grow its “minuscule offerings” by
expanding to “around 30 shops in Tokyo and its suburbs before the 2020
Olympics,” he said.
But well-established smaller players have already found that organic food
can be slow to gain traction.
Rika Oishi founded her organic firm SuperOrganic seven years ago, hoping
to capitalise on a boom in demand — especially from foreigners — for
“healthy” food after the Fukushima earthquake and nuclear meltdown.
“I have noticed a bit more interest down the years from consumers and
firms, but it has not yet become a way of life,” she said.
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