Malaysian Poultry Industry

Today I met James Ng Boon Khong with Leong Hup Contract Farming Sdn. Bhd. and ayam A1 Food Corporation Sdn. Bhd. He spent five years studying at the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond and had looked up where Goltry is on the internet. By the way, he is not the first person with Oklahoma ties I have met here. When I went to the palm oil plantation on Carey Island, the director of their Golden Hope Academy education center went to the University of Oklahoma. It was nice to meet people who understood where I am from. James and I traveled quite a distance to one of the company’s poultry farms. It is a closed barn system much like in the U.S. the only real difference is that there is less automation since labor is less expensive here. They had recently shipped most of the chickens from this farm and had mostly empty barns. There was one barn that had chicks put in it yesterday. There is a picture of the new chicks below. The chicks have the same genetics that you would find in the U.S and the company runs in much the same way that the poultry companies run in America. One exception is that this farm is owned by the company but they do also have contract growers. Most of their ingredients for their feed come from Argentina. They sell the poultry litter to plantations for fertilizer and aren’t experiencing any of the legal issues that the poultry industry is in Oklahoma.

As I had reported in a previous post the government has set a ceiling price for chicken in Malaysia that is below the actual cost of production. However, from what I can tell it only relates to fresh or frozen chicken not to further processed products. Therefore this company is producing a variety of value added products using their poultry meat in order to survive and make a profit. At lunch we ate at a local Chinese restaurant in a relatively small town. Later this evening I have dinner with several Malaysian Eisenhower Fellows.

Penang

I am sorry that I haven’t posted for a few days. I haven’t had internet access since early Saturday morning.

On Saturday morning I flew from Kuala Lumpur to Penang, which is an island along the coastline north of Kuala Lumpur. It is also its own state within Malaysia. I was picked up at the airport by my driver, Dave. Our first stop was Kek Lok Si Temple. One of the finest Buddhist temples in Southeast Asia, The Kek Lok Si Temple stands majestically on a hill in Air Itam. Built in tiers, the temple boasts the beautifully crafted “Pagoda of Ten Thousand Buddhas”. Taking more than 20 years to build, the temple is set against scenic surroundings. It features a turtle pond, gardens, shrines and sculptures. I took a lot of pictures of this beautiful place, below is one of the pagoda, which unfortunately was under renovation.

Next we went into Georgetown the island’s largest city. Our first stop here was the Seven Clans Village. This area is built right on the water and in some cases over the water near the harbor. It is where the Chinese immigrants from these seven families first settled when they came to Penang. Their lifestyles have stayed much the same and by the way Penang is the only Malaysian state to have a majority Chinese population. The area has a great view as you can see in the picture below.

Next we visited Khoo Kongsi, which is by far the grandest clan temple on the island. The forefathers of the Khoo family, who emigrated from South China, built it as a clan house for members of the Khoo family. The building was so magnificent that upon its completion in 1898, the roof caught fire, some believe, due to its resemblance to the Emperor’s palace in China. It features a magnificent hall embellished with intricate carvings and richly ornamented beams of the finest wood bearing the mark of master craftsmen from China. Below is a photo of the exterior of the hall.

We briefly stopped at Fort Cornwallis. The fort was built on the site of Sir Francis Light’s historic landing in 1786. Originally a wooden stockade, it was replaced by a concrete structure built by convicts in 1804. Below is a picture of the fort’s exterior walls. Georgetown is filled with British Colonial architecture and many heritage buildings.

Georgetown also has several ethnic districts. Little India was our next stop. Think Chinatown except with Indian shops and restaurants some of which date back over two centuries. I enjoyed a brief walk around this lively district. Below is a picture of one of the narrow streets.

The Botanical Garden is an oasis of peace and tranquility with lush green surroundings and vibrant colors of Penang’s tropical flora. But even more intriguing are the monkeys that make it home, one is pictured below.

My next stop was at the Penang Butterfly Farm. The farm is home to 3000 living specimens from over 50 species of colorful butterflies, frogs, scorpions and other insects. I really enjoyed this stop. Below is a photo of one of the butterflies.

My last stop before going to my hotel was the Tropical Fruit Farm. This agrotourism facility is spread over 25 acres of hilly terrain and contains orchards that produce over 200 tropical and subtropical fruits including durian, lychees, mangos, guavas and several lesser known varieties. At the end of the guided tour you get to sample several kinds of fruit and have a fruit juice drink. I have found that I really like Jack Fruit which I have never seen in the U.S. Below is picture of a Dragon Fruit and right next to it is a bloom that will later produce the same fruit. The blooms open at night. I tried Dragon Fruit, its flesh is a bright red and there are very small black seeds. It tastes alright but I still prefer Jack Fruit.

Next I went to my hotel which is in Batu Ferringhi, which translates to Foreigners Rock. It is on the North side of the island and is the best beach area. I ate dinner at a local restaurant called The Ship; it boasts that it has the best steaks in town and is built in the shape of a huge old ship. I did try a T-Bone and it had a good flavor, while it was quite large in diameter it was cut very thin. On the way back to the hotel I walked through the Night Market and used some of the bargaining skills I learned in China.

On Sunday, I slept in until very late in the morning and then had lunch at the hotel. After lunch I went to the pool for a while and then got a full body massage. After dinner I once again browsed around the Night Market. The picture above is sunset from my hotel room’s patio.

On Monday I met with three groups that all oppose the use of genetically modified organisms and free trade agreements. The first meeting was with the Consumers’ Association of Penang. The first two gentlemen I met with here were willing to have a back and forth discussion with me but it was apparent that the only thing we agreed on was the need for Malaysian consumers to be better informed about food safety and sanitation. Otherwise they had a lot of preconceived notions about American agriculture that simply are incorrect. I attempted to correct some of these ideas but I am not sure how successful I was in changing their minds. Later I attempted to have a meeting with the president of the organization. There seemed to be communication issues and this is the first time during my fellowship that I felt unwelcome.

I briefly visited the local chapter of the Friends of the Earth. The person I really needed to talk to here was out of the country. The two young ladies that were in the office tried to answer my questions but they were simply not the right people for the task. They did give me a booklet about why they oppose GMOs. My third meeting of the day was with the Pesticide Action Network Asia and the Pacific. The ladies who run this organization have good reasons to be concerned with many of the issues that they try to address. They seem to legitimately want to make life better for rural people (especially women) in this part of the world. Though we don’t agree on many issues, we were able to find several other things that we do agree on. I felt a lot more welcome here and we had a good discussion of the issues.

Malaysian Agrifood Corporation

This morning I once again met Mr. Chan and we went to meet with the Chief Executive Officer of the Malaysian Agrifood Corporation, Azizi Meor Ngah. Malaysian Agrifood Corporation Berhad (MAFC) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Khazanah Nasional Berhad that was established in May 2006 to drive Malaysia’s food supply chain management and distribution system towards global standards in safety, quality and sustainability. I found Azizi Meor Ngah to be very personable. We had a very good discussion about their quest to improve Malaysian food production and empower small producers. He was very interested in American agriculture and in particular how our farmers’ cooperatives work. He also asked several questions regarding our government’s influence on agriculture. I told him our industry is much more based on free market principles.

Next Mr. Chan and I were joined by Pack Huang who has been coordinating my schedule while I am in Malaysia. We drove quite a distance to the other side of the mountains that run down the Malaysian peninsula to an area that the state government has opened up specifically for food production. Farmers and companies can apply to lease a portion of this land. MAFC has 100 acres here on which they have established a Papaya farm. I was unaware that papaya grew so fast. Plants that were planted in March started producing fruit in November. The papaya that they have at this location is a new variety that has been breed to have all of the best characteristics. The plants will produce for about 30 months before they get too tall for harvest and are replanted. This farm is a demonstration farm using all of the best management practices and it is hoped that the small, surrounding farmers will learn from this operation and improve their operation thus building a viable industry for export. Even now the young plants are producing two metric tons a week and one ton is being exported to England. In the future they will also rotate production with a new variety of pineapple. We tried some of the papaya and it was delicious.

Ministry Visits

On Thursday, I met Chan Han Hee, Senior Vice President of the Malaysian Agrifood Corporation. He took me to Putrajaya, which is their planned national administrative city (Think Washington, DC without all of the surrounding areas). Our first meeting was at the Ministry of Health to discuss Food Safety, Defense and Traceability. They have a very tough job in a country that is not used to sanitary and phytosanitary regulations. However, the actual enforcement responsibilities lie with the officials in each state. The Ministry simply establishes the policy and does research. They briefed me on their food safety efforts and critical incident plan. We also talked about the relatively new labeling regulations that they have implemented. I enjoyed this visit and felt very welcome. After being in Japan where I met with very few women, it was nice to be in a room with mostly women.

After the meeting Mr. Chan and I looked around the city. It is a very attractive, planned city. Below is a picture of the Mosque and the Prime Ministry building. We also made a brief stop at the botanical gardens.

Our afternoon meeting was at the Ministry of Agriculture. I received briefings from officials from several different divisions. They have a pilot program called MFIT, which is an electronic traceability system. With all of the talk of a food crisis, I asked about their self sufficiency rate and they said it was 72%. This is much better than Japan’s 39%. Malaysian agriculture faces many problems but they seem to be working to fix many of them. I asked about the poultry ceiling price which I had been told in an earlier meeting was below production cost. They said they were meeting with industry people the next day to try to fix this issue. The person who is most involved with trade issues was unable to attend, so I didn’t get many answers on that topic.

Carey Island

I spent Tuesday and Wednesday at Carey Island, which by the way is not exactly an island. It lies on the Straits of Malacca on one side and a river flows on the other two sides. But the river on one side hasn’t always gone all of the way through; many years ago there was a land linkage on one side. But for most of the history of the plantation the only access to the “island” was by ferry or other boat. In the mid 80’s a bridge was built allowing people to drive to Carey Island. The Sultan of Selangor granted an Englishman named Edward Valentine Carey the right to open up the island around 1899. Over the years the plantation has produced rubber, tea, coffee, coconuts, cocoa and oil palm. It is a very historic place.

I learned about palm oil production. This is a very interesting crop. Seedlings are planted when they are 12 months old. The first harvest is when they are 4 years old. Four to 10 years is considered young, 11 to 20 years are prime and over 20 years is considered old. The fruit bunches are harvested every 15 days. There is a picture below of harvest. The plantation is currently averaging 6.4 metric tons of oil per hectare per year. This is a much higher tonnage than other oil crops. From the plantation the bunches go to the mill where the oil is extracted. All of the parts of the bunch are used. The oil comes from the orange outside of the fruits but the internal kernel is also used. The kernel can be seen in the second picture below of the fruit bunch - a couple fruits got sliced open during harvest. The kernel is cracked like a nut and the external shell is used to fuel the boiler at the mill with any extra sold to other industries for use in their boilers. The inside of the kernel is processed into a different kind of oil. The empty bunch is returned to the field to decompose and provide nutrients to the trees. Each bunch is marked to show what field it came from and who harvested it. Harvesting the bunches at the correct stage of ripeness is important because premium quality oil with a fatty acid content of less than 1.2% can only be produced from perfectly ripe bunches. From the mill the oil goes to the refiner where the oil is refined to make it clear and odorless and processed into a number of different products. There is a huge demand for palm oil products right now because they are healthy and produce very crispy fried products. After the refiner, some of the oil can go to the biodiesel plant to be processed into fuel. Right now there is such a demand for palm oil food products that there isn’t very much palm oil being refined into biodiesel. I toured all of the different facilities along the supply chain. I should also mention that at the end of the palm oil trees productive life span which is over 25 years they are chopped up and returned to the soil to provide nutrients for the next crop of trees. This process in shown in the third picture below. They do not burn in Malaysia and most of the large palm oil companies around the world also do not burn. Only the very small producers in countries like Indonesia still burn. Also they use integrated pest management to control insects. There are certain beneficial insects that must be present to pollinate the bunches, also they plant flowering plants to attract other beneficial insects that then control the worms that attack the palms. They also use owls and hawks to control the rat population. Everything is done with a great respect for nature. Every part of the palm is used, there is no waste. This industry appears to be extremely sustainable. This plantation has been producing oil palm since the 1950’s, the mill has been in operation since 1966, the refinery started in 1977 and of course the latest addition is the biodiesel refinery. Oil palm can only be successfully grown seven degrees north and south of the equator. I know that there has been a lot of negative publicity about palm oil in the media lately but I think part of the reason for that is that this industry is making a lot of money right now. Just like the oil industry in the U.S., it is easy to pick on the companies that are making big profits.

All of the people I met on Carey Island were very nice and hospitable. On Tuesday afternoon they took me to visit the local indigenous people, the Mah Meri. These people have lived on the island since long before Mr. Carey was granted development rights by the Sultan. They were very isolated until quite recently but now their children attend school including high school on the plantation. They continue to preserve their culture. They are known for their handicrafts. The women weave the local grasses into many different shapes and the men are very talented woodcarvers. Below is a picture of the younger carver that we met. I bought both some of the woven products and a hand carved wooden mask. The wood they use is very hard and red in color similar to cherry. It comes from a mangrove tree that is very hard to find and actually Sime Darby the company that owns the plantation is doing research on reestablishing this tree on the island so the carvers will continue to have a supply of wood, unfortunately it is a very slow growing tree. After we left the village we went into the nearest town and bought a durian from a road side vendor. If you are not familiar with durian it is a very popular fruit in Southeast Asia and it has an unpleasant smell. Many westerners can’t eat it because of the smell. The one we tried didn’t have much odor and I am not particularly sensitive to smells. I liked the taste. There is a picture below to prove that I braved the dreaded durian. Later in the evening we went to a local Chinese seafood restaurant for dinner. This part of my visit was a very authentic experience. I felt very at home and welcome. I feel honored to have had this opportunity and recommend it to anyone who has a chance to visit Carey Island. They host international visitors quite often, including Presidents of countries. My lodging for Tuesday night is pictured below, it is now called the VIP Bungalow but historically it was the West Estate Manager’s Bungalow. It is just one of many Heritage Buildings that remain on the island.

First Day in Kuala Lumpur

The newspaper that was delivered to my room this morning had the front page headline “Facing the Food Crisis.” Obviously I am also going to hear a lot about self sufficiency problems when it comes to food production in Malaysia. My first meeting this morning was with Dr. Khaw Eng Sun, DVM. He is a Technical Advisory Committee Member for the Federation of Livestock Farmers’ Associations of Malaysia. Actually this group is only concerned with pork and poultry. There is a price ceiling on poultry in Malaysia. This ceiling price is lower than the cost of production. This is yet another example of a government working in a counterproductive way when it comes to production. Actually there are 11 items that have set prices including cooking oil, chicken, bread, sugar, flour and condensed milk and in the newspaper this morning the Minister of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs said there would be a meeting today to discuss adding more items to this program. At the same time the government is also talking about how to increase domestic production. From my prospective these two things seem counter to each other. Many decisions here are political and making food cheap for the consumer is a good political move. There has been one political coalition in power here for many years and in the last election the opposition party gained five states, so they are feeling the need to make the public happy. Also, there is very little consistency in policy; each time that there is a different Minister of Agriculture there is totally different policy. Recently the former Minister of Higher Education has become the Minister of Agriculture. Both here and in Japan I have been surprised at how people move from one part of government to another. In the U.S. if you work for the USDA you aren’t very likely to move to the Education Department for example.

Thirty percent of the broilers produced in Malaysia are slaughtered at inspected plants and sold frozen. The other 70% are still sold through wet markets which in many cases are less than sanitary. These chickens are fresh not frozen and the consumers prefer them. They are also much less expensive. There is concern about drug residue in these birds. Malaysia produces 40 million broilers per month and 10% are exported to Singapore live and slaughtered there. Most of the feed comes from the U.S. and Brazil. The number of farms has shown a sharp decrease in the last 15 years and is expected to continue in this trend. The pork and poultry industries are predominately run by Chinese Malaysians. When the British were in control of Malaysia they tended to encourage immigrants from certain countries to do certain jobs and many of those trends continue today.

I had lunch at a Chinese restaurant with Johan Raslan, my Program Coordinator; he is Executive Chairman of PricewaterhouseCoopers and Honorary Secretary of the Eisenhower Fellowships Alumni in Malaysia (EFAM). Another guest was Tan Sri Dato’ Mohd Ramli Kushairi, President of EFAM and Chairman of the South Malaysia Industries Berhad. He is also a member of the Prime Minister’s Malaysia Business Council. Cody White, Cultural Attaché, and Loh Lee Pin, Assistant Marketing Manager of the Office of Agricultural Affairs, also joined us from the American Embassy. I enjoyed meeting everyone and we had a good conversation.

My afternoon appointment was with Dr. M. Ghazie Ismail with the Halal Industry Development Corporation (HDC). He gave a PowerPoint presentation on the HDC and explained the requirements to meet Halal Standards. The HDC is focusing on Halal Integrity, Industry Development and Branding and Promotion. Halal products are being promoted to all residents of Malaysia as higher quality, more sanitary products. In addition to following Halal slaughter practices they require strict sanity compliance which is not always used in other products in Malaysia. They are working to increase the Halal Industry in Malaysia not just in food but also in pharmaceuticals and cosmetics. Brazil is currently the largest exporter of Halal products and Australia also has a good sized Halal industry. I think that there may be some opportunities for U.S. businesses in the Halal industry. Since we already have excellent sanitary systems in the U.S., I think the only added requirements would be to have a Muslim do the slaughtering and have an Imam bless the animals. The Halal market is growing around the world.

In the morning I leave for a palm oil plantation where I will spend the night so I don’t think I will have internet access. I will post again as soon as possible.

My Visit to Malaysia Begins

I spent most of the day today on a plane. The airport here in Kuala Lumpur runs much more efficient than Tokyo Narita. My driver Hon Seng picked me up at the airport and we drove into Kuala Lumpur to my hotel which is right next to the Petronas Towers. They were until very recently the tallest building in the world and are still the tallest twin towers. This evening I had dinner with Pack Huang, who has been arranging my schedule in Malaysia and Professor Dr. Khaw Lake Tee, an Eisenhower Fellowships Alum. She is currently Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of Malaya. I enjoyed the Malaysian food and the conversation. I am looking forward to the rest of my program here in Malaysia

Last Day in Japan

It is very late and I have to be up early to fly to Kuala Lumpur. This was my last day in Japan. I only had one meeting. It was with the Director of Green Eye the food traceability system of AEON supermarkets the largest retailer in Japan. He outlined all of the requirements that AEON requires its suppliers and producers to meet. This is a very detailed system. It amazes me how many levels of regulations there are regarding food safety and traceability in this country. I will try to write more about this later.

Tonight I went to dinner at a very good restaurant with my Program Coordinator, Noko and her husband Sunao. Noko got teary eyed when we said good bye at my hotel and I kind of did too. I have really enjoyed my time in Japan. I was extremely busy but I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

Tanegashima

In the late 1800s an American ship wrecked off of the coast of Tanegashima and the local residents rescued the crew and took care of them. After the crew got back to the U.S. President Cleveland and congress sent a letter of appreciation to the residents along with $5,000. This was in recognition of them going out of their way to help strangers. This event is still celebrated each year with a ceremony to help instill this helpful spirit in today’s children. The $5,000 gift was used to improve education on the island. I began my day by visiting one of the schools that benefited from this gift. It is where my friend Hiromi went to Elementary School and she teaches English there twice a month. The school is first through sixth grades and only has 16 students. I showed a PowerPoint slide show with pictures of our farm and Hiromi translated my descriptions. Afterwards, Hiromi had each of the children come up and introduce themselves to me in English. Most were very shy about trying this, but they all eventually did. Below is a picture of me with the kids.

Our next stop was a beef cattle operation. It is in a beautiful location. Check out the picture below – how would you like to have that view? They are a cow-calf operation and produce native Japanese cattle. Once again we were shown around by the son who is involved in the operation. The major difference in their operation is they wean the calves from the mother almost immediately and feed them milk replacer. This is done for two reasons. First, these cows don’t always produce very much milk and second, they want the cow to breed back as soon as possible. They have an automatic feeder for the calves that uses RFID tags around the calves’ necks to know which calves are eating. They are able to produce all of their own hay and also feed the tops of sugarcane that is produced locally, which would otherwise go to waste. All of their calves are shipped off of the island to other growers. When the BSE outbreak occurred in Japan the market was depressed for about two years but he also has a fishing business that helped with the family’s income during this time. Below is a picture of Hiromi and one of the friendly calves.

Next we stopped at a scenic overlook that is one of Hiromi’s favorite places. I am sure you can see why in the picture below. Notice all of the farm fields in the foreground.

At the big dinner party in Kanoya I had met a friend of Hiromi’s that started a company making products out of the local sweet potatoes. This area is known for sweet potatoes. They are different from the sweet potatoes in the U.S., the inside flesh is white instead of orange. Below is a picture of some of his staff making sweet potato cakes. All of the work is done by hand and all of the ingredients are produced locally. They also make cookies.

For lunch we went to a small café run by surfers. It has the feel of a place you would find in rural Hawaii near a surfing beach. Tanegashima is a surfing destination. Hiromi had told me that we were going to have real hamburgers for lunch and I was excited, but when I looked at the menu one of the very few English words was Dr. Pepper. I am sure that everyone back in Oklahoma understands how excited that made me. This is a really neat little place. I enjoyed it so much I had to take a picture.

After lunch we went to see a friend of Hiromi’s that produces sugarcane. She was the first female farmer I had met in Japan. There are a group of women who work together in the production of sugarcane. It is near the end of the harvest but we got to see them harvesting. These are really neat ladies and I really enjoyed meeting them and learning a little about sugarcane.

Our next stop was at some caves that you can walk all of the way through to the other side and come out on the beach right next to the ocean. Below is a picture looking out of the cave and another one of the beach outside.

The most well known thing about Tanegashima is that it is the home of the Japanese Space Center where they launch their rockets carrying satellites into space. You can drive right through the Space Center on a public road. We went to the Visitors Center Museum. It is very nice and informative. Below is a picture of the launch facilities.

Our last stop before going to the airport was a resort on the southern tip of the island. I took this picture there.

This was an incredible day and I was truly sad to say goodbye to Hiromi. I hope I will be able to come back to Tanegashima. As my plane came in for a landing at Kagoshima, I was able to see the volcano. Although it is not perfect this is the best picture I could get from the plane.

Kagoshima

When I arrived at Kagoshima airport, my interpreter and I were met by Hiromi Nagano a Japanese Eisenhower Fellow who had offered to show us around that part of Japan. We drove to the Kanoya area, which is the #1 pork and beef production area in Japan. The drive was on very steep, winding road and reminded me of where I grew up in the mountains of western Virginia. Most native Oklahomans would have gotten car sick. First we visited Fukudome Pig Farm Ltd. Mr. Hiroaki Fukudome and his son Toshiaki showed us around their operation. This was exciting because this is the first operation I have visited where a second generation is involved with the farm. His other son is studying meat science in Germany. They are currently part of a marketing association but they want to start processing and marketing their own pork products. Toshiaki studied English in Great Briton and was able to tell us about the operation in English. They have 350 sows. Most of the hogs appeared to be Yorkshire and Yorkshire cross but they have recently started importing some Hampshires, including one they are very proud of from Ohio. Mr. Fukudome was proud of the beautiful landscaping at the front of the farm and the trees they had planted. He said they want to provide a good environment for the pigs. They have a urine processing system that removes all smell from the urine and makes it safe to release into the river. And they also recently put in a manure processor that makes high quality compost. There is a government subsidy to support the installation of this equipment. Fifty percent of the total cost comes from the national government and 25% comes from the local government. He was also very proud of the fact that they mix all of their own feed. All of the feed inputs are imported, including fish meal from the U.S. and seaweed from Holland. When I asked about free trade agreements he said he was opposed to them because they couldn’t compete with producers in other countries. Below is a picture of some of their pigs and by the way they still use farrowing crates.

Our next stop was a dairy farm. At this farm not only is the owner’s son involved but his grandson who is eleven is also involved with the dairy and wants to be a farmer after he gets out of school. They have recently built a new facility with a 120 cow capacity and an automatic robot milking machine on one side. This has given them more time to do other things and allowed them to milk more cows. The facility cost 200 million yen and again the government subsidized its construction with 50% from the national government and 25% from the local government. They also have 130 hectares where they produce the corn silage for the dairy. His son asked me about using DDGs and I shared my limited knowledge with him. The neighbors that moved in recently near their corn fields complain when they spread manure for fertilizer. This is just one more thing they have in common in with the U.S. All of the livestock in Japan is so calm and friendly. Below is a picture of my friend Hiromi making friends with a cow.

Next we went to Mr. Ino’s house. He is an architect and engineer who designed the new dairy facility and he had invited us to stay at his house for the night. It is a typical rural Japanese home with futon mattresses on the floor for beds and we sat on the floor at a low table for tea and breakfast. Japan has many onsen (hot springs) and there is a famous one nearby that they encouraged us to visit. At Japanese onsens you bath naked (men and women have separate areas). First you take a shower to clean yourself and then you get in the bath. When you are finished you rinse off with another shower. I was very uncomfortable but I had read about how important onsens are in Japan and I thought I had to try it once. It also helped that when I don’t have my glasses on everything is blurry, so I just acted like it was also blurry for everyone else. After we got back from the onsen there were several people already at the house and Mr. Ino and his wife were cooking dinner. We had a big feast on a patio above their garage. It was raining but they had covered the area with plastic. The local food was really good and they just kept bringing it to me. I probably ate more than I had in the last two weeks. There were several very important people from all of the surrounding communities invited. We ended up visiting two of the people the next day.

One was Ryuzo Sakata, Rear Admiral, Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force (JMSDF). He spoke good English and had been to the U.S. several times. I told him that my husband loves Naval History, especially the Pacific Theater of WWII and he invited us to the base. So, the next morning we were given a tour of the Kanoya Naval Aviation Museum. This is an impressive museum that focuses on the history of Imperial Naval Aviation and the development of the JMSDF. It also has a large section devoted to the Kamikaze pilots that sacrificed themselves during WWII. There is a display with pictures of all of the more than 2000 Kamikazes. The average age was 19 and one was only 16 years old. Below is a picture of a Zero that is in the Museum. They also had several other planes on display outside. Those of you who know my husband, Ryan, know how much he would have enjoyed this visit and I thought about him the entire time. Next we were escorted on to the Kanoya Air Station to Admiral Sakata’s office. He is a naval aviator and commander of the air wing which has 20 XP1 aircraft. The base also has several helicopters. It is considered an important, critical point of defense from China. Recently there was a dispute over an oil spill that happened right on the line where the two countries’ waters meet. Also, a couple of years ago the coast guard sunk a North Korean boat that was coming too close. The Admiral told us about the new law that has recently been passed allowing them to rescue any U.S. personnel that might need their assistance and provide logistical support for U.S. vessels. Below is a picture of us with the Admiral.

At the party, I also met a green tea grower and we visited his operation next. Drinking tea became mainstream about 90 years ago in Japan, prior to that it was only for special occasions. He and several other growers in the area recently upgraded the equipment in their processing facility. He said in order to get the subsidy from the government you have to spend so much and buy bigger equipment than you really need. He has 150 hectares but they are all on steep hillsides. There are two ways to get a better price for your tea. You can produce higher quality tea or you can be the first to harvest and sell that year, if your crop is delayed there is a big cut in price. The tea producers’ share of a bottle of tea is 3 yen (about 3 cents). Some of the tea plants were covered which produces higher quality tea but a smaller quantity. Tea can be stored refrigerated for up to 3 years without any damage to the quality. Another interesting thing that he told us is that this area has one of the worst problems with an aging population. For every birth there are 3 deaths. Below is a photo taken from one of his tea fields. It is a beautiful place. This picture doesn’t do it justice since it was raining.

On the way back to Kagoshima we stopped at a 100 yen vegetable store he had told us about. I had heard so much about how Japanese consumers are so picky about the appearance of their food, but this shop makes a big profit proving that some people are okay with a slightly crooked carrot if it is less expensive than the straight ones. We took the ferry across Kagoshima Bay, which we had heard earlier in the day was used as a practice sight for the attack on Pearl Harbor. There is an active volcano right on the bay but it was so cloudy I couldn’t really see it. Next we took another ferry to Tanegashima. This ferry is a hydrofoil and is much faster than the conventional ferry but it still takes 90 minutes to get to Tanegashima.

Traceability Systems and Reception

This will be a short post since it is really late and I have to be up very early in the morning to fly to Kagoshima. My first meeting today was with Joe Gayton, Asia Marketing Manager for Webster Fresh the Tasmanian vegetable company that my Program Administrator, Noko, also works for in addition to her other business. They produce onions and carrots and export to both Europe and Asia. We had a really good discussion about the requirements that Japanese retailers demand in order to do business with them. He also showed me the very impressive traceability system that the company maintains. Webster Fresh is setup in much the same manner as the poultry companies in the U.S. they provide all of the inputs and advise the growers and they pay the growers based on the final production. The growers must follow their guidelines. The Japanese retailers are very specific about their requirements and the appearance of the final product and Webster Fresh does all they can to meet their expectations.

My next appointment was at DNP which is a massive company that started out in the printing business but has expanded into all kinds of high tech fields. They are developing RFID chips for a variety of uses including tracking which products consumers are looking at and the obvious supply chain tracking applications. The building we were in is a show place for all of their high tech gadgets and was extremely impressive.

I ended my day at a reception that was given in my honor by Mr. and Mrs. Post. Mr. Post is the Public Affairs Minister-Counselor at the U.S. Embassy. All of the Japanese Eisenhower Fellows were invited and there were probably about 30 people in attendance. I really enjoyed talking to all of the fellows. It was a very nice evening. I may not have internet access for the next couple of days but I will post again as soon as I do.

Kobe

My day in Kobe began with a visit to the Kobe Beef Distribution Promotion Association. The average Kobe feeder farm has 200 head of cattle. They buy the cattle from the breeders when they are around 280 kg and sell them when they are around 650 – 700 kg. This growth stage takes two years. There are two large cow-calf farms producing 10,000 head per year. In order to be designated as Kobe beef the cattle must be purebred Tajimaushi, with Tajima being the breed name and ushi meaning cattle. The Tajima breed is documented to have been in this area 1200 years ago and is native to Hyugo prefecture where Kobe is located. All Japanese cattle are registered and receive a ten digit identification number and their registration papers include a nose print. Tajima cattle produce meat that has very thin fibers and soft fat. Kobe beef can only be produced in Hyugo prefecture. All Japanese beef cattle have some Tajima blood but they are crossed with other native breeds. Tajima were first used as labor on the farms and there is evidence of livestock markets in the 1600’s. Feudal lords encouraged farmers to take good care of their cattle and all people had to bow to Tajimaushi except feudal lords and court nobleman. The cattle in this area also got better feed such as wheat and the byproducts of producing sake. In 1868 Kobe port opened to foreign ships and the foreigners wanted beef. After this Kobe beef became world renowned.

In 1979 the Kobe Beef Distribution Promotion Association was established. It's mission was to establish a clear definition of Kobe beef and make the product clearly identifiable. They registered the Kobe brand. There are 500 registered Kobe growers and of these 5 are located within the Kobe city limits (this is more like a county in the U.S.). There are 500,000 tons of beef consumed in Japan each year of that only 8,000 tons is Kobe beef. When BSE was found in Japan there were no cases in Kobe beef and only one case in Japanese beef the remaining cases were all in dairy cattle. 100% of the cattle are checked for BSE and if a positive is found it is burned and all of the cattle that were feed with it cannot be shipped. Also, all the Specified Risk Materials are vacuumed and burned. They also change knives between each cow they process. When the BSE outbreak happened in Japan the prices of most beef went down but Kobe already had complete traceability so their prices were not impacted. As I said above, each animal has a ten digit number that is on its ear tag and registration papers and can be traced to the cow it came from. The meat packages also have this number. Consumers can input this number on the internet through their mobile phones and access all of the information about the animal. There are also displays in some meat shops where this information can be accessed. The government pays for the traceability system and BSE testing. The producer incurs no costs except the labor involved with keeping the records.

Next we drove to Teishin Chikusan Meat Company. This is one of the largest beef processors in Japan. I met Mr. Sotoike Yoshimitsu the President of the company and we looked at some beef in their freezer. They pointed out the difference in the feel of the fat on Kobe beef as opposed to other Japanese beef. It is much softer, the other Japanese beef’s fat is very hard. The most popular cuts of beef change with the season in the summer BBQ is popular and the short rib is used and in the winter Shabu Shabu is popular which is the very thinly sliced meat usually cut from the loin or sirloin and cooked at the table.

Next we went to the Meat Center for a beef auction. They do not auction the live cattle they auction the carcasses after slaughter. The cattle are brought to the Meat Center and they are slaughtered and then tested for BSE. Two days later they are auctioned and 4 days after slaughter they are available to consumers and restaurants. They do not age their meat as we do in the U.S. I was told that not very many people ever get to watch an auction and especially not on a day when there is a lot of Kobe beef in the auction. I feel very honored to have had this opportunity. We walked around with the buyers before the auction and looked at the carcasses. This was very interesting to me since I used to coach meat judging teams. They were all marked with the official grade and it was interesting to compare them. They were also marked as to whether they were Kobe beef or other Japanese beef. Kobe beef brings significantly more than other beef. When the sale starts the buyers sit on heated cushions because it is cold in the market and they want the buyers to be comfortable. Any farmers that want to watch their beef sell stand at the back of the room. Mr. Yoshimitsu insisted that my interpreter and I take his seats and he stayed and explained the auction process to us. As you can see from the pictures below the carcass is brought in and a TV monitor shows a close-up view of the rib eye. Also displayed is the name of the producer, place it was produced, father’s name, mother’s father’s name, age in months, whether it is a steer or heifer and weight. All of these can change the final price that will be paid. The bidders have buttons they push to bid and the display indicates how many people are bidding at any time. When we were looking at the carcasses before the sale we met the producer of lot 506 and were told that he was a famous farmer. The pictures below are of his beef and it brought the most per pound of any in the sale on this day. It brought 3,310 JPY per kg or a total of 1,037,354 JPY which is approximately 10,600 USD. A Japanese beef actually brought more total dollars because the other breeds are much larger than the Kobe beef it weighted 448.2 kg and brought a total of 1.3 million JPY or approximately 13,300 USD.

After the auction we went to one of the farms that is in the Kobe city limits. Again, this is more like a county in the U.S. and it was quite a drive around winding mountain roads north of Kobe. The farm’s parent company is Centennial Flour in Portland, Oregon. The gentleman who manages it used to work in their flour mill in Kobe and had been to Oregon for training in the flour mill business. The farm was started in 1972 and it currently has 600 cattle. They have started to breed some of their own cattle recently. He showed me some of the registration papers and made me a copy of one of them. They breed using artificial insemination exclusively and the prefecture government controls the semen. It must be ordered from them and you very rarely get all of the ones you ask for in your order. The limited genetic diversity that is available in the Tajima breed has caused line breeding to occur and this has caused fertility problems in the cows. It often takes several tries to achieve conception but because of the small number of available cows they go to great lengths, including hormone injections to get a pregnancy. All of their hay and feed must be imported. They get Timothy hay from the U.S. and Canada and wheat straw from Australia. This is all in small square bales. The corn, grain sorghum and wheat that they feed also come from the U.S. They also import some Wheat Bran from Indonesia. Tajima cows eat about 7-7.5 kg of feed a day but the other Japanese cattle eat 8-9 kg per day since they are larger breeds. The cattle don’t eat any colored feed such as green grass or really anything with much color. This is done because they want to limit the consumption of Vitamin A to promote marbling. They will pay a lot for what they call pink Sudan hay from the U.S. because it has almost no color. No, the cattle don’t drink beer and get massages, but they do feed some byproducts from beer production. The cattle are confined in small pens and eat and sleep all day. They say “sleepers will grow better.” It costs 700 JPY or about $7 per day to feed each steer or heifer. Heifers bring more at the market but there are less sold because most are saved as cows. The calves they buy cost in the 600,000 to 750,000 JPY range and the feed is very expensive so they need at least 1 million JPY to breakeven on the 30-35 month old cattle that they sell. All of the cattle at the farm are incredibly friendly.

I really enjoyed talking to the manager of the farm. He seemed to like it that I had come to visit his operation. He joked that in WWII our soldiers ate beef and the Japanese soldiers ate fish and if the Japanese had eaten beef maybe they would have won. He also said that when he was visiting Oregon he ate steak every night. I asked how he liked to flavor of the steak and he said it was very good since he was eating it every night. You couldn’t eat Kobe beef every night. When I asked about Free Trade Agreements and WTO, he said he was in favor of free trade and we should all compete. He also said that he thought that many Americans would like to have Kobe beef. I agreed that they would and asked if he would support lowering or eliminating the tariffs on beef imports and he again said “Yes, we should compete.” He also said that he thought that opening the market would be good for his business. I really like this gentleman and this whole day was a wonderful experience that I am sure will be one of the highlights of my fellowship. Check out the pictures of the farm below.

Yoshino and Nara

Today I went to Yoshino to the Cherry Blossom Festival. It took a long train ride to get there and the train was packed so I had to stand up the entire way. This is the most famous place in Japan for viewing cherry blossoms. The Japanese people are crazy about cherry blossoms so it was very crowded. I was told that the Japanese government promoted the love of the cherry blossoms especially during the period before and during WWII. It was viewed as honorable to live like a cherry blossom – reach your peak and then pass on. This feeling was promoted to young men serving their country. I took a bus up the mountain and walked down. Along the way I stopped at Yoshimizu Shrine. This shrine was formerly called Yoshimizu-in and was established by the priest Ennogyojya about 1300 years ago in the Hakuho period as the living quarters for the Yoshino Shugen priests. It was around through historical events including the development of Shugendo (a kind of physical and religious training) until the beginning of the Meiji period. However, in 1875 (the 8th year of the Meiji period), it was converted into a shrine at the time of the separation of Shintoism and Buddhism. In 1336 (the 1st year of the Engen period), Emperor Godaigo escaped from Kazanin, Kyoto and hid in Yoshino with the help of Soushin Yoshimizu-in and he designated this shrine as the Imperial Palace of the Emperor of the Southern Court. Thus, after the Emperor came to the shrine, the sad history of Yoshino started and continued for 57 years spanning the reign of four emperors. It was the beginning of the confrontation of the Northern and the Southern Court. The Emperor spent several years in this isolated place and finally he became ill due to sorrow and passed away. This shrine was the main Palace of the Southern Court and is now considered as the only tentative palace of the Emperor of the Southern Court. Below are some pictures of the cherry blossoms and shrine.

Next I took the train to Nara the first capitol of Japan. Here I visited Todaiji Temple. This temple was built in the Nara Period (710-794 AD) at the behest of Emperor Shomu (r.724-749). The temple was officially positioned as one of many state-established provincial temples. However, since the chief object of worship of the temple is Vairocana Buddha (Buddha that shines throughout the world like the sun), a magnificent temple was built to reflect this importance. Todaiji Temple serves both as a place of prayer for peace and affluence on earth, as well as a center of Buddhist doctrinal research. Over the centuries, Todaiji has produced many famous scholar priests. Todaiji Temple was founded by Bishop Roben, and is to this day the Head Temple of the Kegon Sect of Buddhism. The chief object of worship is Vairocana Buddha, who is also the central Buddha in the Kegon Sutra. The statue of Vairocana Buddha is made from cast bronze, which was then plated in gold. The statue was consecrated in 752, but was damaged and repaired several times in the following centuries. The current hands of the statue were made in the Momoyama period (1568-1615), and the head was made in the Edo period (1615-1867). The Great Buddha Hall was burned in the fires of war in 1180 and 1567, and the current building is actually the third generation structure, which was built in the Edo period. The width of the current building is approximately 33% smaller than that of the original structure, but it still ranks as the largest wooden structure in the world. Below is a picture of the Temple. The park surrounding the shrine is known for the large number of deer that live there, they are considered creatures sent by god. I have also included a picture of some kids feeding a couple of them.

Kyoto

This morning I caught a shinkansen (bullet) train from Tokyo to Kyoto. I was met at the station by Mr. Doi my guide for the day. Kyoto is particularly crowded right now because it is cherry blossom season, so there were crowds everywhere. We first went to Nijo Castle. This castle was built in 1603 as the official Kyoto residence of the first Tokugawa shogun, Ieyasu. The ostentatious style of construction was intended as a demonstration of Ieyasu’s prestige and to signal the demise of the emperor’s power. The castle has an outer moat and an inner moat. Ninomaru Palace is a very impressive structure with beautiful painted screens and incredible carved wood panels. Unfortunately photography is not allowed inside. As a safeguard against treachery, Ieyasu had the interior fitted with “nightingale” floors and concealed chambers where bodyguards could keep watch. The palace is just one of the many buildings that make up the castle. Beautiful gardens surround the castle. I have included a photo of the front of the palace and a picture I took in the garden.

Next we visited Kitano Tenmangu Shrine. This Shinto shrine was built in 947 and the current main hall was constructed in 1607. There were almost no crowds here because there are no cherry trees on the grounds of this shrine; it is known for its plum trees which bloomed last month. Mr. Doi educated me on Shinto beliefs and we had a nice peaceful stroll around the shrine grounds. The picture below is the front gate of the shrine.

Rokuon-ji Temple and Kinkaku (or The Golden Pavilion) was our next stop. In the 1220’s it was the comfortable villa of Kintsune Saionji. Yoshimitsu, the 3rd Shogun of Ashikaga, abdicated the throne in 1394. After three years he began to build Kitayamaden and he made a special effort to make it a breath-taking site. He indulged in his peaceful life in this serene setting. After Yoshimitsu’s death, Kitayamaden was made into a Zen temple in accordance with his will. All of the buildings of those days came to ruin except Kinkaku. The garden, however, remains as it was in former days and can be enjoyed as it was hundreds of years ago. Below is a picture of Kinkaku – The Golden Pavilion.

Next we went to the Kyoto Handicraft Center and I did some shopping. I bought several items to help me remember my trip. After that we went to Heian Shrine. This impressive shrine complex was built in 1895 to commemorate the 1100th anniversary of the founding of Kyoto. The buildings are colorful replicas, reduced to two-thirds of the size of the Kyoto Gosho of the Heian period. The spacious garden has a large pond and many weeping cherry trees. It was very crowded. The main building is shown below.

Last we visited the Gion district. This district still has many original style buildings and is still home to geisha houses. It is a very pretty and traditional area. I have included a photo of some maiko (apprentice geisha) however Mr. Doi tells me that these are not the real thing, they are for the tourists.

There are a lot more pictures if you click on the Fellowship Photos link on the right. You do have to sign-up for a Snapfish ID but it is free.

Meat Show and MAFF

This morning we took the monorail around Tokyo Bay to the Big Sight to attend the Meat Industry Show. It was a nice day and the scenery was beautiful along the way. The Big Sight is a huge exhibition building and there were several different big trade shows going on in different parts of the complex. The U.S. Meat Export Federation had given us tickets for the Meat Industry Show but it turned out that there were also shows involving other foods and drinks in the same exhibition space. We ate lunch using all of the samples that were available from the various vendors. I know I have said this before, but the variety of products available in this country amazes me. For example, we got free soft serve ice cream cones from a company that has at least 30 different flavors of soft serve. I have included a couple pictures below of some booths that I think you will recognize and the third picture is of some beef from the company that I will visit in Kobe on Monday, notice the approximately $210 price tag. When we were talking to a gentleman that works for USMEF a buyer for one of the Korean beef bowl restaurants came by to see him. They really want the age limit on U.S. beef raised to 30 months and I agree with them. Another interesting thing at the USMEF booth was a video of a beef slaughter plant in the U.S. I saw several people stopping to watch it.

Next we took the monorail back to where we started the day and caught a cab to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. I had a discussion with three gentlemen about Food Safety and Traceability and Trade Policy. The gentleman who discussed trade policy’s focus is dairy products, so I ended up wishing that I knew more about the dairy program in the U.S. When he asked me some questions I had to tell him that I didn’t know much about the specifics of the dairy program since I am not involved with it directly. On the food safety and traceability side, I didn’t hear anything new. The discussion on trade policy was surprisingly open. Basically, he told me that if there were no tariffs the small scale farmers in Japan could not exist. Specifically they feel that they must protect their rice and dairy farmers. There is so much price variation between domestic products and imported products that high quotas must make up the difference for Japanese farmers to stay in business. They are discussing reducing tariffs as part of the Doha round of WTO negotiations, but with really no agricultural items to export and everything to import negotiating Free Trade Agreements either bilaterally or multilaterally doesn’t make since for their agricultural industry. Exports are only 1/20 of their total agricultural trade. Other industries would gain from a FTA with the U.S. and because of this one may be negotiated in the next ten years. They realize that the U.S. government would not support a FTA that doesn’t include agriculture but they would want to carefully choose which commodities to include. They recognize that pork and beef are important commodities to the U.S. and it seems that they may be open to reducing tariffs on these items if a FTA were ever negotiated. I asked about the 39% self sufficiency rate that I have been hearing so much about and they said that figure may not be entirely correct because feed imports are also included in that calculation and there are several variables. They also think that it might be possible to improve that percentage to 50% in a few years. I asked if there was a possibility of accepting modern production technology like biotech and hormones as a means to become more self sufficient. They said that is a good question that they can’t answer right now. The media has a big impact on all food related issues and reports on food and agriculture every day.

Tonight we had dinner with Mr. Tomiji Akabayashi, an Eisenhower Fellowships Alum. We dined at a restaurant owned by the founder of Sony. It was a traditional Japanese meal with many courses and took a long time to finish. We had a good conversation during the meal and I really enjoyed meeting Mr. Akabayashi.

Random Thoughts at the End of my First Week

Well, I have been in Japan for a week now and I thought I would share a few random thoughts about my trip so far. First on agriculture, the overwhelming issue on everyone’s mind (and I mean everyone) is Food Security. Everyone that you talk to whether they are involved in agriculture of not is thinking about the fact that Japan is only 39% self sufficient in producing food. Much of the heightened concern has been brought on by the poison dumplings that were imported from China. This issue has caused consumers to be suspicious of all imported foods no matter what country they come from and the majority of the population is just realizing that Japan can’t produce enough domestic food for its people. Obviously, there is very little land available and a lot of people to feed. Also, their farmers are even older than the ones in the U.S. And to make it worse from what I have been able to tell so far the Japanese government’s agricultural policies may have caused production to decrease. For example, several years ago the subsides for rice production were raised so high that the old farmers no longer needed to drain the rice paddies after they harvested their rice and plant either wheat or soybeans as a double crop. For a culture that loves soy products so much, the fact that they currently produce almost no soybeans is a big concern. I have been told that I am here at a critical time for their agriculture and food industries because of these very issues.

I also have some very random thoughts to share on several everyday observations about Japan. There are several things that are different about Japanese hotels. The rooms have doorbells. They all have very fancy toilets with bidet and spray options and the hotel in Sapporo had a heated seat on the toilet. One thing that I think is really cool and we need to learn from in the U.S. is the mirrors in all of the bathrooms have some sort of anti-fog treatment right where you would normally stand to look at yourself, so you can take a hot steamy shower and still use the mirror afterward. All of the indoor spaces in Japan seem very warm to me and you don’t always have control of the temperature in your hotel room. Several of the rooms have the very deep Japanese style bathtubs. Like in China, in most hotels you have to insert your room key to turn the lights on.

The back door on the taxis opens and closes automatically. As I previously mentioned, the steering wheel in the cars are on the right hand side and they drive on what we would call the wrong side of the road. I still can’t get used to right hand turns being like left hand turns in the U.S. It is a good thing I don’t have to drive here. The convenience stores here are very small but they carry an incredible variety of items including in some cases man’s dress shirts. There are still cigarette vending machines everywhere here. And for a country that seems so concerned with its health quite a few people still smoke. Several people here wear masks over their nose and mouth; I guess this is because of air pollution. I haven’t really noticed much pollution, certainly nothing like we saw in China. I saw a man driving a truck and he had his mask pulled down and was smoking a cigarette. That seemed a little strange to me. They sell food in the airports and I don’t mean restaurants or convenience stores. I mean actually grocery store like food stores. Noko bought crab and other seafood in Sapporo and carried it back on the plane and when I landed at Narita Tokyo International Airport there were vendors selling vegetables. Also, people leave their bags unattended in the airport, both in the departures and arrivals areas, but they require you to show a claim check before you can take your bags out of the baggage claim area. Last but not least – Business cards or as they call them name cards are extremely important here. There is a ritual that is required when you meet someone in Japan. You must hand them your business card using both hands and receive their business card using both hands and then lay the card on the table and stare at it for a while. Being a farmer from the U.S. this is very strange to me; most U.S. farmers don’t even have business cards.

Sapporo

Our first meeting on Wednesday morning was at the Hokuren Trading Company Offices. They began by giving an overview of Hokkaido agriculture. There are 59,000 farms on Hokkaido and 144 farmers’ union cooperatives, one for each prefecture. These are not cooperatives like the cooperatives in the U.S.; there are no dividends to producer members. Hokuren is the parent organization over all of these farmers’ cooperative unions. This seems to be somewhat like a combination of Farmland and Farm Bureau in a way. They have agricultural cooperatives, a bank, insurance and hospitals. They collect products from farmers and market them and they sell input products to farmers. They also seem to lobby on behalf of the farmers to the government, although when I asked who determines what positions they take on issues they said that is a good question. I never really got a good answer. There seemed to be a lot of communication and understanding problems in this meeting and it is very possible that I didn’t fully understand them. They said the cooperative association supports farmers in case of weather related losses and apparently the government subsidies are distributed through the farmers’ unions. When I asked about subsidies they said that the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries has recently shifted from basing subsidies on each commodity to supporting farmers’ lifestyles. When I asked questions relating to trade policy they became very nervous and looked at each other to see who would answer. Out of the six people in the room really only one of them spoke very much. Basically they told me what I had heard before about free trade which is “Free trade is ideal” however they must protect the rice, wheat and dairy farmers because these are staple crops and their self sufficiency is already so low. This seems to be the official response. Despite the “Free Trade is Ideal” comment, I am pretty sure that one of the handouts they gave me tells people to support Japanese agriculture and something about the Australian (and maybe U.S.) EPA. It is printed in Japanese script and all I can read is EPA. The import tariff on one root vegetable product that we don’t have in the U.S. is as high as 990%. I guess the 100% tariff on beef and 210% tariff on wheat aren’t too bad compared to that. The government also controls all wheat trade and profits are at least partially redistributed to domestic producers. The government seems to have a lot of influence of the farmers’ production decisions. This is accomplished in a number of ways, including subsidies to not produce certain crops. Growers can use the land to produce some other crops but there are restrictions on which ones. This seems counter to becoming more self sufficient. Five years ago the government started requiring farmers to keep records on chemical use, farming systems, etc. and if consumers ask they must be told all of this information. Again very few, if any, really ask. Commodities are randomly tested for chemical residue. When BSE was first found in Japan the 100% testing program was started and it is very hard to back away from that now. They are very proud that Japanese food is considered very safe by other countries and this is an advantage when they do export something. The farmers’ cooperative unions on Hokkaido, and therefore Hokuren, are the strongest in Japan.

Next we went to lunch at a local crab restaurant. Hokkaido is known for its crab. We had dishes that included King Crab, Snow Crab and Hairy Crab. I had never had hairy crab before, it is sweet and delicious. I recommend it if you have a chance try it. One of the pictures below shows some hairy crabs in one of the groceries stores we visited later in the day. After lunch we went to a large grocery store in Sapporo, there was a much larger meat section in this store compared to the one in Tokyo and the packages were larger. They also eat a lot of lamb on Hokkaido, most of which is imported from Australia. The variety of items in their grocery stores amazes me. Next we went to a smaller grocery store that is owned by Hokuren, which specializes in domestically produced items. There isn’t as much variety in this store although it did have some imported products. Pictured below is some of the fresh mozzarella cheese from the plant that we visited on Tuesday. The other picture is a milk marketing advertisement video encouraging consumers to buy local milk. It was a very well produced video.

After the grocery stores we took the train to the airport and caught a flight back to Tokyo.

Hokkaido

It was raining heavily in Tokyo when I began my Tuesday morning. I caught a taxi to Hanada Airport which is the domestic airport in Tokyo. We sat on the plane for two hours before taking off because of the weather, so we were late arriving in Sapporo. We were met at the airport by Mr. Harada with Hokuren Trading. We had lunch at the airport in an Italian restaurant. I had pizza. Next we got into Mr. Harada’s car and headed to the Hidaka area. This area is full of Thoroughbred race horse farms and the landscape resembles many areas of the U.S. There is also a noticeable difference in the size of the vehicles on Hokkaido, they are more normal sized compared to the U.S. Everything here is more familiar.

Our first stop of the day was Hokkaido Hidaka Milk Products Co., Ltd. We met with several members of the staff including the company president. They gave us an overview of the dairy industry in the area. Agriculture in this area started about 100 years ago when an American specialist came to the area and instructed the local residents on some production methods. As I had previously indicated Japan is only 39% self sufficient in terms of producing the food that the people eat. On the other hand Hokkaido is 190% self sufficient, which shows how important Hokkaido agriculture is to the rest of Japan. Dairy is an important industry on Hokkaido. There are 8,310 dairy farms with 836,000 cows on this island. About 400 of those farms bring their milk to this processing plant. The Hidaka area is southeast of Sapporo and very close to the ocean, so they don’t get as much snow as the rest of Hokkaido. The peak of farming on Hokkaido was in the 1960’s but now there are only one quarter of the farms that there were then. Because the average age of Japanese farmers is very high the future will likely see several small farms working together or combining. This factory first started producing powdered milk in 1972 and it was purchased by its current parent company in 1987. The product line has expanded a great deal since then. In addition to powdered and liquid milk they currently produce fresh mozzarella cheese, several soft cheeses such as ricotta and mascarpone, butter, yogurt and yogurt drinks, a wide variety of canned drinks, long life products and they have canning agreements with other drink companies. They were the first to start producing fresh mozzarella in Japan and are very proud of it. I tried some and it is quite good. The variety of dairy products available in Japanese supermarkets is amazing. The company is currently exporting milk to Taiwan and Hong Kong. They have 130 employees and 8 billion JPY in annual sales. All of their products that I tried were really good and the factory was one of the cleanest I have ever seen. They have a lot number traceability system much like you might see in the U.S. Their lots might include the milk from up to 3 farms and consumers can call and request that information if they want, but almost none actually call.

Next we got into a car provided by the milk processing plant and drove to Kurimu Dairy Farm. This is one of the largest, if not the largest, farm in the area. In addition to owning 600 Holstein cows, with about 300 milking at a time, they also have 250 hectares of land where they produce corn silage and haylage to use in the dairy. This makes them a very large farm by Japan standards. We were told that they are 8 times larger than normal for the area. They have a 28 stall carousel parlor (pictured below). The cows walk in and ride around in a circle for about 20 minutes while they are milked and then walk out. Think carousel slide projector – I had never seen this kind of milking parlor before. An RFID tag on each cow links up with a computer to keep track of how much milk each cow is producing and a sensor around a leg monitors the cow’s condition. Feeding plans are based on this information and what stage of milk production the cow is in currently. Different groups of cows get different rations to maximize production. They milk 3 times a day and all of their cows are domestically bred. The average production per cow at the midday milking on that day was 39.8 kg. Their bacteria counts are very low compared to other farms on Hokkaido. They have a water treatment system that all water is run through before being released into the river. Also, they compost the manure and use it on their land as well as marketing it to other farmers. Almost all of their feed has to be imported including alfalfa hay as well as the grains. There were large square bales of alfalfa from Ellensburg, WA in his barn that cost 21500 JPY per 500 kg bale. It costs 720 JPY per day to feed each cow. His children are not involved with the operation but he does have several young people that work for him and he says there may be opportunities for them in the future.

We drove back to Sapporo and checked into the Hotel Monterey, which is a very impressive older hotel. I was very tired after a long day and went to bed early which is why this blog entry is a little overdue.

First Day in Tokyo

Today was my first day in Tokyo and I started the day by meeting with the U.S. Ambassador, Mr. Schieffer. He is from Ft. Worth and it was nice to hear a Texas accent. He told me how important agriculture is in Japan. Japan produces less than 40% of the food that is necessary to feed its population and food security is a very important issue right now. He had just recently given a speech regarding the need for Japan to look to other democratic nations such as the U.S., Canada and Australia as sources of the other 60% of their food. After the recent problems with imported dumplings from China this is at the forefront of a lot of people’s minds. He also will be delivering a speech soon regarding Genetically Modified Organisms. It was interesting to see that the Ambassador was truly interested in agriculture.
My next meeting was with Mr. Ronald Post, Minister-Counselor for Public Affairs at the Embassy. He was familiar with the Eisenhower Fellowships. When he was based in South Korea several years ago he was involved with nominating their Eisenhower Fellow to travel to the U.S. We were joined by Nini Forino, Assistant Cultural Affairs Officer; she works with the Japanese Eisenhower Fellows and is interested in assisting future USA fellows who will visit Japan. I enjoyed visiting with Mr. Post and Ms. Forino.
Our next meeting was with Greg Hanes, Japan Director for the U.S. Meat Export Federation. We discussed the U.S. beef trade situation. This issue has become very political in Japan. It is used by the DJP political opposition party to attack the majority LDP party. When BSE was found in Japan the government overreacted and instituted 100% testing. Now it is hard for them to back away from this extreme position. However, they are scheduled to reduce testing later this year. We also discussed Japanese consumers’ views on traceability. He provided us with passes for the Meat Industry Showcase which we will visit on Thursday or Friday. This is a large national meat industry show with exhibitors from around the world and it should be very interesting.
Next we took a cab to an AEON supermarket. AEON is the largest supermarket chain in Japan. This store was only a couple of years old and quite large. The variety of items that are available is impressive and everything is displayed very attractively. Mr. Hanes had told us that AEON doesn’t carry much U.S. beef compared to the other chains, mainly because they can’t get enough of a continuous supply for all of their stores. Below are three pictures I took at the supermarket. The first is a package of onions from the Tasmanian company that Noko represents; notice the “green eye” label that can be scanned with a cell phone and gives traceability information. These particular labels are unique to the AEON chain. The second picture is domestically produced beef, notice the heavy marbling and roughly $22 price for this small portion. The third picture is domestically produced pork; notice the picture of the farmers that produced it. We will be visiting AEON’s corporate headquarters later during my visit to discuss their traceability system.

We returned to the U.S. Embassy for our final meetings of the day with the USDA Foreign Agriculture Service. We first met with Dan Berman, Minister-Counselor for Agricultural Affairs and Paul Spencer, Senior Agricultural Attaché. They related how hard it is to balance food safety concerns with the ability to do business in Japan. The two hottest issues are beef trade and bio-tech. The media and political parties make it very hard to get the scientific reality heard. Even the scientists quote opinion polls in justifying the policies relating to these issues. The traceability systems are largely driven by retailers not consumers. Food service is less traceability oriented. One interesting fact that I didn’t previously know is Japan uses 7 times the amount of agricultural chemicals per land unit as anywhere else in the world. This is largely because of the humid climate. Japan imported $225 million worth of U.S. beef last year and many restaurants really want U.S. beef. Also, 93% of the corn used in Japan is from the U.S. Japan is estimated to only have a 6 week supply of feed grains on hand. Interestingly, there is starting to be quite a bit of Dried Distillers Grains coming to Japan in containers that would otherwise be empty on their return trip from the U.S. We also discussed the procedures for gaining approval of a bio-tech variety in Japan, which takes up to 3 years and requires a 250 plant test plot in Japan.
Next I talked to Mr. Hisao Fukuda, Agricultural Specialist and Senior Policy Advisor. He has a lot of experience with Japanese Agriculture and has also spent some time in Iowa. We discussed how emotional and ethnocentric the food safety issue has become. He said that unfortunately issues like the poison dumplings from China soon become a domestic verses import issue no matter what country the imports are coming from. Food Security is a major issue right now. The Japanese government is starting a new division to concentrate on Food Security. It was the high government subsidies for rice that caused farmers to stop double cropping rice with either wheat or soybeans thus contributing to the food security problems that they are now facing. All farmers in Japan produce some rice. The average income in rural Japan is higher than in urban areas. The government has a lot of influence over agriculture and food in Japan. For instance, all imported wheat is bought by the state so the price is controlled by the state trading entity and milk prices are set once a year by the government. Agricultural areas are very influential in the government as one vote in a rural area counts more than a vote in Tokyo. I asked about the WTO negotiations and he said that the government is starting to hold town meetings with producers to let them know that there will have to be changes in farm programs. But he also sees Japan continuing to use Sanitary and Phytosanitary regulations and Food Safety to control imports. 60% of Japanese farmers are 65 years of age or older. To become a farmer you have to be approved by a board of farmers. This is a very old process that began for water management reasons. There doesn’t seem to be much recognition of the fact that soon there will be no farmers. I guess we should feel lucky with our 55 year old average farmer and the few young farmers that we have coming into the business. Japan proves that it could be a lot worse.

Mt. Fuji Area

On Saturday morning my Program Administrator, Noko and her husband Mr. Fukuchi picked me up from my hotel in Yokohama and we drove to their weekend home at Lake Yamanaka. Of the five lakes that surround Mt. Fuji this is the second largest. We stopped and ate lunch at Denny’s (yes it is the same Denny’s you would find in the U.S., but a very different menu). I had a BLT and a Coke. Then we when to the Fukuchi’s house, it is a delightful mountain cabin with a wonderful view of Mt. Fuji. As you can see from the picture below I was very lucky to be there on one of the few very clear days of the year. I was told that Fuji-san is usually quite bashful and hidden behind clouds. We spent the afternoon chatting on the deck and enjoying the view. I also spent some time in a traditional Japanese bath before we went to dinner. We ate at a traditional Japanese restaurant in an old fashioned house. The meal was beautifully presented and included several courses. I did quite well with most of the food with the exception of the very nearly raw mackerel, which I tried but was unable to eat more than one bite. Otherwise, I handled everything including the baby squid which are in season right now. After dinner we returned to the cabin and I spent the night in a Japanese style room with a futon mattress on the floor. I found it quite comfortable.

On Sunday we went to the Katsunuma area. Our first stop was a peach orchard and grape producer. Noko had thought that the peach trees would be in full bloom but they were a little behind because the area has experienced the harsher winter than normal this year. There were a few blooms open as you can see in the picture below and a gentleman was removing some on the blooms from the trees to promote larger fruit for harvest. Japanese peaches are different from the peaches we have in the U.S. They are larger, bright pink on the outside and have white flesh on the inside.

At the same location they also produce table grapes and I found the way that the grape vines are trained to the mesh above them very interesting. This was also the way the vineyards we say later in the day at the wine facilities were planted. The rows are spaced much wider than in the U.S. and the vines extend out in all directions instead of being trained in rows. The picture below is of one of the larger grape vines I saw.

Next we went to a very fancy facility that’s name translates as Hill of Grapes. It is on the top of a hill that overlooks vineyards on all sides. We purchased cups for wine tasting. It was quite different then the wine tastings I have been to in the U.S. The cups were silver and had ribbon attached so that they hung around your neck. We went into the wine cellar which had wines from all of the local wineries and you just walk around and pour some of whichever wine you want to taste. Noko’s husband has worked in the wine marketing business and is quite knowledgeable about wine so I let him choose which ones to try. Below is a picture of the wine cellar.

Our next stop was Marufuji Winery Co., Ltd/Rubaiyat Wine. The Managing Director, Mr. Haruo Omura, showed us around the winery. He was in the middle of preparing for a concert that will be held at the winery next weekend. His winery is considered to be one of the best in Japan and he is also one of the top enologists in Japan. He has published several books on Japanese wines and grapes. The winery is impressive and I am told it is very much like European wineries. I tasted five of his wines and really liked one of the whites. Mr. Fukuchi bought me a bottle of it. I hope I can get it home in one piece. The picture below shows Mr. Omura in his tasting room.

On the way back to Tokyo there was a lot of traffic since many people had taken advantage of the good weather and gotten out of the city. There was also a big traffic jam because there was an accident and traffic was at a standstill for a long time. We finally arrived at my home base in Tokyo, the Hotel Okura. It is a very impressive hotel and very close to the American Embassy. Check out the link to all of my pictures on the right hand side of this page.

Yokohama

My day didn’t start until 11:30 am when I had lunch with my Program Administrator, Noko. I was looking forward to sleeping in after my long flight yesterday, but I woke up early and couldn’t go back to sleep. So, I got up and worked on some computer stuff. During lunch Noko and I talked a little about my upcoming schedule. She has some really cool stuff planned for me. After lunch we visited the Animal Products Inspection office at the Yokohama Port. They are responsible for inspecting all meat, bone, horn and antler, skin and hide, hair, feather, egg, raw milk, feces, ham, sausage, bacon and processed goods containing these products to make sure that they meet the import restrictions that are in place with the country that they are shipped from. This office is administered by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. After they inspect the products the Ministry of Health and Welfare does a sanitary inspection. Although they are not responsible for quarantining and inspecting live animals that enter the country, the head of the office, Koko Tanaka, did briefly discuss the process for bringing live animals into the country and gave us some literature regarding this process.

Next we went to Kamigumi Co., Ltd. This location is a five story chilled vegetable warehouse. We first went to the fourth and fifth floors to look at some produce that came from a company called Webster Fresh which Noko represents in Japan. They are based in Tasmania, Australia. We looked at some carrots and some onions that they had in storage. Below is a picture of the carrots and one of the barcode and traceability information, so they can track the pallet of carrots back to the producer if necessary. We spoke to Mr. H Fujimoto about the fruit and vegetable inspection process. He explained it well. The inspectors make sure that the produce doesn’t have any bugs or disease. If they find something wrong, then depending on the produce and what county it is from it will either be reshipped back to its original destination or it will be fumigated.

This evening we had dinner with Hiromi Nagano, who is an Eisenhower Fellowships Alum from Japan. We ate at a nice restaurant in Chinatown. I really enjoyed the dinner and the conversation. There is a chance that I will be able to visit Hiromi on the small island where she lives just south of Kyushu. I hope it works out because I would really enjoy spending some more time with her and learning about the agriculture in her area. Tomorrow morning Noko will pick me up and we will go to her weekend house near Mt. Fuji. I am really looking forward to it; however I may not have internet access again until Sunday night when I get back to Tokyo. I will post more then.

The Adventure Begins

After a very long flight and what seemed like an even longer wait in the immigration line at the airport, I am finally in Japan. My flight was a little late because we had a head wind the whole way from Dallas to Tokyo. Then the line to get through immigration processing was backed all of the way out of the immigration area, so my Program Administrator, Noko Fukuchi had a long wait in the arrivals area just outside of customs. We were both very happy to see each other. Noko drives a very small Nissan. It is smaller than any model of Nissan that we have in the U.S. We had a bit of a challenge deciding how to put my two pieces of luggage into it. Also, it was my first time to ride in a car with the steering wheel on the right hand side and they drive on what we Americans would call the wrong side of the road. It felt a little strange to be sitting where I would expect the steering wheel to be and be the passenger.

Tokyo Narita Airport is on the north side of Tokyo. I was surprised as my plane came in to land how much agricultural land is right around the airport. When I mentioned it to Noko she said that it is a peanut, leafy vegetable and carrot growing area and that when the proposal came out to build the airport there was resistance from the farm community because of the valuable farmland that would be taken out of production. We passed through Tokyo and by several areas that Noko pointed out as being new developments built on land that was reclaimed from the sea. I am spending the next two nights in Yokohama which is on the south side of Tokyo and is Japan’s second largest city. Basically today was spent just getting here, so there weren’t many photo opportunities but I thought I would share a picture of my view from my small, but nice hotel room.

I will post lots more tomorrow after I have a chance to get some sleep. Thanks for reading!