TOKYO: Robust demand for Japanese agricultural products, including healthy food, lifted agriculture, forestry and fishery exports to record total high of 750.3 billion yen ($6.6 billion) in 2016, data from the farm ministry showed Friday. Japan has witnessed the yearly figure reach a record high over the past four years, reflecting an increase in the number of health-conscious overseas consumers who have helped boost the popularity of “washoku,” or Japanese food. A range of Japanese food items from beef and green tea to sake and soy sauce reported growth in exports, according to the data by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. The total export figure represents a 0.7% increase from a year ago, with the pace of growth slowing in 2016 due to the yen’s strength and unfavorable weather conditions in Japan that led to poor catches of scallop and other fishery products.
The government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been trying to boost the appeal of Japanese agriculture, setting a target of achieving 1 trillion yen in exports of agricultural, forestry and fishery products by 2019. “Although we still have a long way to go to reach 1 trillion yen, we will strive to achieve it without giving up because we see demand growing for Japanese food,” Farm Minister Yuji Yamamoto said at a press conference. Immediately after the powerful earthquake and tsunami in 2011 that triggered a nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, Japan’s exports of farm and fishery produce slumped. But the recent recovery comes in the wake of eased or lifted import regulations imposed on Japanese food products by other countries. By country and region, Hong Kong was the biggest importer of Japanese products in 2016, followed by the United States and Taiwan, China, South Korea and Thailand, the data showed.
Exports of agricultural products, which include confectionary and other processed foods, gained 3.7% from a year ago to 459.5 billion yen and forestry products were up 1.9% to 26.8 billion yen. Those of fishery products dropped 4.2% to 264 billion yen. Japanese beef surged 23.1% in exports and green tea saw a 14.3% gain, which compares with growth of 11.2% for Japanese liquor and 6.8% for soy sauce. Rice exports increased 21.2%. Robust demand for fruit, particularly from the increasingly wealthy Asian population, lifted exports of grapes by 50.4% and those of strawberries by 35.3%.
