Japanese food traders target more exports to Thailand

Last year, Japan’s exports of food and farm products reached 610.7 billion yen.
Koichi Takano, director of the agriculture, forestry, fisheries and food division at the Japan External Trade Organisation (Jetro), said Thailand was a high-potential market because many Thais liked Japanese foods, while the country is a centre of Asean, which means many visitors come here.
Thailand is Japan’s six-largest food importer, with imports last year worth 248 billion yen, up by 1.1 per cent from 2013. In the first half of this year, Japanese food imports by Thailand increased considerably, by 4.9 per cent year on year.
Most Japanese food companies are small and medium-sized enterprises.
Last week, Jetro Bangkok held a business-matching event between 40 Japanese food enterprises and more than 200 Thai businesses, including modern trade, retail and wholesale, hotels and restaurants. The event aimed to increase trade opportunities for Japanese producers of food and agricultural products in Thailand.
Sachio Takiyama, director of Jetro Bangkok’s trade promotion department, said the organisation expected that each Japanese firm participating in this event would secure at least one trading contract or one business transaction with a Thai company.
He said that with the rising popularity of Japanese restaurants here, Thailand would import more raw materials and food products from Japan.
According to a Jetro survey in August, the number of Japanese restaurants in Thailand had grown by 11.5 per cent year-on-year to 2,364.
Takiyama said Jetro Bangkok expected the number of Japanese restaurants in Thailand to increase by 10 per cent a year. Thus there is a strong opportunity for more exports of Japanese foods, rice and raw materials, as well as alcoholic beverages, to Thailand in the near future.
Japanese products with high potential for export to Thai markets are premium-grade meat, alcoholic beverages, fish, and fruits and vegetables.

Meat traders
Kouda Mayumi, a member of the technical staff of the beef promotion section of the Oita prefectural government, said the prefecture had started to export premium-grade beef to Thailand via Japanese importers last year, with a total volume of about 2 tonnes. She foresees strong demand in the Thai market.
Shingo Yamashita, senior adviser to Azuma-Cho Fisheries, said demand for fresh fish in Thailand was expected to increase considerably as spending power rose along with the popularity of Japanese restaurants here.
The company exports about 50 tonnes of buri fish, also known as yellowtail, to Thailand each year.
Masanobu Miyazaki of JTF Trading, an importer of beef and fish from Japan to Thailand, said demand for Japanese food here had increased strongly over the past few years.

Vegetables
Takashi Kato, assistant manager of Bangkok Food System, an exporter of Thai vegetables to Japan and importer of Japanese food to the Thai market, said the company had exported Thai vegetables to Japan for more than 30 years.
It foresees imports of Japanese foods to Thailand increasing, due not only to demand from Thais themselves but to the rising number of Japanese residents in this country.
“Now, with higher demand for Japanese foods, we will import Japanese rice, vegetables and fruits to Thai markets to serve restaurants and supermarkets,” he said.
Haruhiko Sunakawa of Okayama Fruits Company wants to export Muscat grapes to Thailand, along with other fruits such as peaches and strawberries.
He is now looking for distributors or modern trade outlets to buy such products.

Alcoholic beverages
Kyoko Yoshida, director of Shiyoshida-Syuzou, a producer and trader of shochu, a distilled beverage, said the company has started to introduce the product to the Thai market two years ago. So far, the company has exported it to some Japanese restaurants in Bangkok, and wants to seek |modern-trade partners as distributors.