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.