Japan Stands Ready To Answer The Global Food Crisis
Friday, April 25, 2008SUSIE GHARIB: Meanwhile, the United Nations said today that the sharp rise in food prices has developed into a global crisis. It's urging world leaders to ramp up food production. In the midst of this situation, Japan remains the world's largest net food importer. As Lucy Craft reports from Tokyo, Japan's changing demographics are propping up demand for foreign products.
LUCY CRAFT, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: When it comes to the food business, few countries have an outsized appetite for American products like Japan. Despite its dwindling and graying population, the food-fixated Asian super power bought close to $12 billion worth of American food in 2007. As its farmers retire and consumers of all ages indulge in exotic and fine cuisines, Japan finds itself ever more dependent on imports to feed itself.
TRANSLATION OF: NOBUKO MATSUO, PRESIDENT, MATSUO CO.: Retirees are fascinated by French and other western cuisines. They are willing to pay more for delicious foods and children are developing a more westernized palate.
CRAFT: Japan now produces only about a third of what it consumes, the least self-sufficient in food of any rich nation. That worries bureaucrats like the AG ministry's Yasuhiro Kawai, who directs food policy. It's high time, he says, to turn back the import tide.
TRANSLATION OF: YASUHIRO KAWAI, DIR., GENERAL FOOD POLICY BUREAU: Within the next seven years, we plan to raise our self-sufficiency in food to 45 percent, by boosting grain production and encouraging consumers to eat more locally-grown foods.
CRAFT: U.S. agriculture officials like Daniel Berman discount such campaigns.
DANIEL BERMAN, MINISTER-COUNSELOR, AGRICULTURAL AFFAIRS, US EMBASSY TOKYO: We don't see how they're going to get there. The road map to that is very, very unclear.
CRAFT: Government buy-local initiatives haven't slowed business for American gourmet exporters like Paul Prudhomme, the TV chef. Japanese consumers remain hooked on foreign foods, says North Carolina-based barbecue sauce manufacturer Patrick Ford.
PATRICK FORD, VP, FORD'S GOURMET FOODS: It's so similar to the U.S. market, in the way that people -- the tastes that people want and they're willing to pay for a better product.
CRAFT: Singularly unsuccessful have been America's efforts to restore its lucrative beef franchise in the wake of BSE fears, says Philip Seng, head of America's meat export federation.
PHILIP SENG, PRESIDENT & CEO, US MEAT EXPORT FEDERATION: That's going to a depend on how well the U.S. and the Japanese government negotiate and how adept we are at negotiating and I would say that the track record has not been all that positive.
CRAFT: American producers of high-grade processed foods are counting on Japan to remain a prime market. But in contentious areas like beef, skittishness about food safety is likely to continue to frustrate U.S. exports for some time to come. Lucy Craft, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, Tokyo.
