Japan to assist with value addition

With its long experience in supplying food to the world market, Japan has offered to help Thailand add more value to its food products and achieve its plan to become the “Kitchen of the World”.
Sachio Takiyama, director of the Trade Promotion Department of Jetro Bangkok, said that not only had the Japanese government promised to cooperate with Thailand in developing its food supply chain, but private enterprises had also shown strong interest in investing in this industry and cooperating with Thai enterprises.
He said the Thai food industry had a lot of opportunity to grow. Japan would exchange knowledge on food innovation, food safety, packaging and the development of functional food.
According to a Jetro study, consumers nowadays consider three factors before buying a food product: safety, health, and flavour. Japanese and Thai foods are quite similar and have those three qualifications, so the two countries could strengthen their ties in food development to become major world suppliers.
Japan has targeted a food-export value of Bt320 billion (1 trillion yen) by 2020, while export value last year grew beyond its halfway target to Bt238.4 billion, increasing strongly by 21.8 per cent from 2014.
Takiyama is confident that Japan will achieve its food-export goal before 2020, and Thailand is one of its targeted markets.
Thailand is Japan’s sixth-largest food importer, and No 1 in Asean.
Last year, Japan exported Bt11.5 billion worth of food to Thailand, up by 3.1 per cent from 2014. Of the export value of Japanese food, Thailand accounted for 4.8 per cent. Japan’s leading food-export markets are Hong Kong, the United States, Taiwan, mainland China and South Korea.
Takiyama said with the rising popularity of Japanese restaurants, Thailand would import more raw materials and food products from Japan.
According to a Jetro survey, as of June last year, 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.
Kako Sasai, deputy director of Jetro’s agriculture, forestry, fisheries and food business promotion division, said that with the rising popularity of Japanese foods, more Japanese small and medium-sized enterprises wanted to do business here.
At this year’s “Thaifex – World of Food Asia”, 72 Japanese food companies exhibited event, a substantial increase from last year’s 55 companies.