Japanese Agriculture...In Shandong Province

http://www.jacom.or.jp/closeup/foodbiz/2011/foodbiz110720-14285.

Japanese agriculture...how to make it more "competitive"? That is the common refrain. Even the transnational companies think they can accomplish that when they barge into Japan with a free trade agreement.

But what if that "competitiveness" is never going to happen, and it has nothing to do with Nokyo or free trade agreements or subsidies or increasing exports. All we have to do is look at Shouguang City in Shandong Province where Japan gets the bulk of its garlic, ginger, and carrots.

Japan imported 25 million tonnes of vegetables last year if you include fresh and processed foods, which is up 14 percent from last year. In the first five months of this year, imports were 11.9 million tonnes. And while it might be tempting to think it all has to do with the earthquake, experts do not think the earthquake has anything to do with it, perhaps with the exception of frozen spinach.

Half of imported vegetables come from China: the overall ten year average is 51 percent, and the average is 49 percent for this year. Japanese consumers have a negative image of Chinese vegetables, but the reality is that Japan now cannot do without places like Shouguang City with its high tech vegetable production. And except for a few experts, the Japanese public knows nothing about this game-changing trend.

http://www.find.takushoku-u.ac.jp/staff/ou/newpage119.htm

Take what is happening in Shouguang. In the 1970s when China kicked off its opening up process by liberalizing agriculture, specialized vegetable production teams appeared and parts of the farm landscape got converted to specialized vegetable production zones. The rail running between Jinan and Qingdao was then used to transport the vegetables to major cities in Shandong. However, in the 1980s when the Peoples Communes got dismantled and the market economy gathered energy, specialized vegetable farmers appeared in force even in villages.

From the end of the 1980s the standard of living in Chinese cities rose rapidly and people started demanding fresh vegetables in cities even during the bitter winters. (I remember massive piles of bokchoy in Beijing in preparation for the winter even in the early 1990s.) The market for high end precision grown vegetables also grew. The plastic green houses sprouted up in places like Anqiu and Shouguang and vegetable production became much more important than grains.

Nowadays everyone in China knows the significance of two characters Shouguang 寿光. It is just that we in North America and Japan have not really figured it out yet.

All we need to do is look at this "sci-tech vegetable fair" to see where things are going.