Japanese Organic Fresh Produce Sector Suffering from Supply Shortages
Booming consumer demand for organic foods in Japan is causing the organic fresh fruit and vegetables market to experience acute supply shortages.
A series of scares have rocked the Japanese food industry since 1999. Consumer concern over food poisoning outbreaks, genetically modified corn entering the food chain, the BSE crisis, and food labelling fraud has been responsible for a large rise in organic food sales.
Demand is outpacing supplies in many sectors of the organic food industry however the organic fresh fruit and vegetables market has been adversely affected by the new Japanese Agricultural Standards (JAS) for organic foods. There has been a very large reduction in volumes due to most of the organic fruit and vegetables sold in Japan prior to 2001 not meeting JAS regulations.
The new strategic report by Organic Monitor shows that the undersupply situation is exacerbated by the low amount of Japanese organic farmland and limitations on imports. There is about 4,000 hectares of certified organic farmland in Japan and much of the domestically grown organic fresh produce grown is not JAS certified.
The latest research publication by Organic Monitor provides market sizes and projected growth rates of the major product categories along with competitive information on the leading suppliers, retailers, and trade statistics. Strategic recommendations are given to prospective exporters.
