TOKYO, Feb. 3, 2023–Japan’s farm produce exports hit an all-time high of 1.4 trillion yen ($12 billion), or about 1/50th of its GDP, in 2022 and growing 14.3 percent from 2021, as the government is fielding a years-long export campaign disregarding domestic consumer outcries that they are over-bidden by foreign countries.
Farm minister Genjiro Kaneko read a bureaucrat-prepared statement at a Feb. 3 news conference at the ministry’s press club, which was broadcast by the Japanese media, that misleadingly said domestic farm produce consumption is taping off corresponding to society aging and declining child births. ‘Japan needs to tap the overseas markets to help domestic farm production’ and that the government will collaborate proactively with overseas businesses to in what he said was a ‘market-in’ undertaking.
True, domestic consumption of domestically produced seafood, fruit, vegetables and other produce has been sluggish over years, especially fish, but the Japanese are consuming more imported farm produce than ever.
In 2022, Japan imported 10.17 trillion yen worth of farm produce, a record sum and up 14.4 percent from 2021, according to farm ministry data. It’s primarily because imports are much cheaper than comparable domestic produce. Japanese consumers want to put on the table as often as possible Kobe beef, salmon eggs, sea urchin, and Ise shrimp, but the reality is they can’t because of steep prices.
Of 2022 exports, China stood out as the largest destination totaling 278 billion yen, up 25 percent. China imported all value-added products such as sea cucumbers and Kobe beef. Hong Kong ranked 2nd with 208 billion yen, shrinking 4.8 percent, reflecting the long COVID-19 fallout. The United States imported193 billion, up 15.2 percent, followed by Taiwan’s 148 billion yen, up 19.6 percent. Fishery product exports grew 28.7 percent and dairy 11.1 percent. A ministry official told me that had it not been for poor fish capture, exports should have been much stronger.
Though it’ll be a while before official release, the latest data implies that Japan’s food self sufficiency, which has been edging lower despite the government’s efforts to keep it above 40 percent on a calorie basis, stood at 38 percent in 2018. The ministry said Japanese farm produce prices are ‘high value-added’ and thus prices are much higher than imports. Excluding rice, milk, eggs and a few other products, self-sufficiency ratios are below 50 percent, with cooking oil and wheat at critically low levels of below 20 percent and probably barely 10 percent now in response to the Russia-Ukraine war.
So, data proves Japanese consumers are threatened by long-term food insecurity, yet, the government shrugs off the condition and instead cozying up to domestic producers with generous subsidies and other handouts for winning support of local heavyweights for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
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