Articles
JAPAN’S RECENT INCREASING IMPORT OF HORTICULTURAL PRODUCE
Two decades ago vegetables were supplied almost entirely domestically, while in 1995 the amount of imported vegetables, fresh and processed, reached to 2,111 thousand metric ton.
The items cover almost all products as onions, asparagus, broccoli, carrots, squash, etc.. And the countries vary from China, to the U.S.A., Mexico, Zealand, Taiwan, etc.. As to fruits, almost all kinds have been imported recently.
The main items are bananas, oranges, grapefruit, and pine-apples.
A new entry item is apples.
The import of flowers is also increasing.
The reasons for increasing import of horticultural products are: (1) low price of imported products, (2) quality of imported products has been better to meet the demand of customers, and (3) Japanese domestic supply has been declining due to the shortage and/or aging of labour force of horticultural farmers.
Such trends are observed and can be explained by marketing theory as competitiveness of market-entry factors; price competitiveness and quality competitiveness.
Combination of both factors made it possible to increase the import of horticultural products.
The paper deals with the drastically increasing trends of Japan’s import of vegetables and explains the reasons for it from a managerial marketing theory.