Japan, China: expensive taste for fruit
( http://www.freshplaza.com/2006/03jan/2_jp_cn-expensiveapples.jpg )
In a fragrant warehouse in the snowy northern village of Hirosaki, orchard farmer Hisanobu Katayama watched as his workers gingerly boxed what he proudly called "the Rolls-Royce of apples."
As big as softballs and as shiny as gems, the precious produce typically goes from the farm to the glitzy retailers of Japan's big cities - where high prices charged for such fruit have earned the country its reputation as the land of the US$15 (HK$117) apple.
But this year, the most costly crates of Katayama's "Japan's Best" apples are bypassing Tokyo's chic Ginza district and heading to China instead.
There, Japanese apples are being scooped up by the Lamborghini-driving, Gucci-toting nouveau riche in Beijing and Dalian at US$17 apiece, or roughly 100 times the price of a Chinese apple. Some of the finest specimens, with dragon designs and Chinese characters in their peels, retail for more than US$100 each.
Katayama's exports to China have soared from two tons to 20 tons over the past three years despite China's rank as the world's largest apple producer.
As developing nations pressed the industrializeworld to open their doors to cheaper foreign produce during the World Trade Organization meeting in Hong Kong last week, Katayama's success explains how he and his peers hope to prosper in the age of globalization - by cultivating an export market for boutique fruit.
"We've discovered that the richest Chinese are now willing to pay more than a Japanese for the best possible apple," said Katayama, 45, whose apples are also popping up inside London's Marks & Spencer and the banquet halls of Taipei.
"The more expensive it is, the more they want it. That's great news for us, because it is the only way Japanese farmers are going to survive."
The crates of apples being shipped overseas are only part of a niche-market export boom from high-end Japanese farms. It includes US$240 musk melons flying off to Thailand, US$3 strawberries heading to Hong Kong and US$170 square-shaped watermelons carted to Kuwait.
Officials estimate Japanese fruit exports will hit at least 25,000 tons this year, more than double the 1999 figure.
While Japan's total agricultural exports of US$2 billion still amount to only 2 percent of its overall farm production, government officials are stepping up marketing efforts with the goal of doubling exports within five years.
"Japan may well be beaten by developing nations with cheaper farm and fishery products," Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said. "But I think Japan can still compete on the international market - by exporting more expensive and delicious goods."
Though Japan, the world's largest net importer of foodstuffs, has steadfastly maintained some of the highest agricultural tariffs, the number of Japanese farmers plummeted to an all-time low of 3.6 million last year, compared with almost eight million in 1975.
Young rural people have migrated to the big cities, leaving a disproportionate number of seniors to tend farms. As they die off, Japanese society is fretting about the future of the nation's ancient and particular food culture.
To be sure, through luxury fruits the Japanese are exporting their own culinary aesthetic. Apples in Japan, for example, are prized as much for beauty as for taste.
On Japanese farms - almost all of which are small-scale operations - even slightly blemished apples are discarded for juice and jams while production is limited to grow fewer but better quality fruit.
Not everyone can afford a US$15 apple. But even in the domestic market - still by far the most important for Japanese farmers - agricultural producers and sellers are focusing increasingly on the high-end niche market.
At Sembikiya, a pricey fruit retailer in the fashionable Nihonbashi quarter of Tokyo, sales have risen 30 percent over the past decade while the company has grown from eight to 13 branches nationwide despite Japan's long economic downturn.
Customers are greeted with classical music as they shop in a gallery space- meets-supermarket environment.
Musk melons, for instance, are displayed against soft lighting, priced from US$100 to US$350 depending on the intricacy of the gorgeous lattice patterns cultivated into their skins.
Customers acquiring the most expensive fruits are ushered to a back table to complete their transactions while contemplating cups of warm passion fruit juice provided by white-gloved attendants.
http://www.freshplaza.com/2006/03jan/2_jp_cn-expensivetaste.htm
