GK was able to have an insightful interview with the president of Gifu-based Salad Cosmo Co., Ltd, Mr. Tomohiro Nakada. After this we were treated to a factory tour, where we were graciously shown the production line, beginning with the dark room treatment to stimulate germination. Following this initial phase, the sprouts are transferred to an area with indirect light, essential for photosynthesis and robust growth.<\/p>\n
What unique qualities make the Japanese food industry stand out from its international competitors?<\/strong><\/p>\n Let\u2019s consider Japanese food culture from the perspective of vegetable producers. Bean sprouts are very popular worldwide these days, whereas before they were available only throughout Asia. These days, thanks to health food trends, it is rapidly gaining popularity. The advantage of Japanese bean sprouts is of course high quality, organic production, and affordable price. In terms of quality, we ensure freshness is maintained and damaged sprouts are withheld from reaching consumers.<\/p>\n How has the recent increase in awareness of health concerns among the Japanese population impacted your business? <\/strong><\/p>\n We wanted to get the organic certification for our products as far back as twenty years ago, however, the Ministry of Agriculture in Japan was so reluctant until around five years ago when they approved organic certificates for sprouts. The catalyst for this was the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games since athletes staying at our Olympic Village required organic foods as per standards set by the IOC.<\/p>\n We do not use agri-chemicals or additives for any of our produce, though in order to attain the organic certificate, it requires that the seeds we use also be produced organically. This is a kind of bottleneck when it comes to increasing sales, as we have to procure more organic sprouts that cost 2-3 times more than seeds.<\/p>\n Currently, which product area are you experiencing the strongest sales growth in? <\/strong><\/p>\n Around 300,000 packages make up the production volume of the production facility we are in currently, though our others are capable of producing around 1 million. Of course, the sprout is the number one bestseller for our company, and we cover 20% of Japan\u2019s total consumption daily and our share is growing year on year.<\/p>\n Another thing is bread \u2013 we recently started production of bread containing chestnut paste and it has been a hit. I myself was unable to buy it to be given as a gift to customers, highlighting its popularity.<\/p>\n Our bread is available at our headquarters and is produced as a part of the \u2018Six Industries\u2019 initiative that seeks to increase the value of agriculture. It is quite rare to see the combination of bread and Japanese-style chestnut paste.<\/p>\n Since Japanese people are huge lovers of chestnuts, we felt that this product would be an excellent choice for breakfasts or snacks during coffee breaks in the afternoon. It is 100% handmade and we can make a maximum of 1000 pieces per day.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" GK was able to have an insightful interview with the president of Gifu-based Salad Cosmo Co., Ltd, Mr. Tomohiro Nakada. After this we were treated to a factory tour, where we were graciously shown the production line, beginning with the dark room treatment to stimulate germination. Following this initial phase, the sprouts are transferred to an area with indirect light, essential for photosynthesis and robust growth. What unique qualities make the Japanese food industry stand out from its international competitors? Let\u2019s consider Japanese food culture from the perspective of vegetable producers. Bean sprouts are very popular worldwide these days, whereas before they were available only throughout Asia. These days, thanks […]<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":6308,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"tags":[22,33,24,23],"class_list":["post-5565","qa","type-qa","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-food","tag-gifu","tag-health","tag-japan"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/global-kigyo.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/qa\/5565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/global-kigyo.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/qa"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/global-kigyo.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/qa"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/global-kigyo.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/qa\/5565\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7724,"href":"https:\/\/global-kigyo.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/qa\/5565\/revisions\/7724"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/global-kigyo.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/global-kigyo.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/global-kigyo.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}