The Actual State of Organic Products Marketing in Japan

일본의 유기농산물 유통실태

Recently. together with consumers' increasing concerns on food safety and environmental issues. there is increasing demand on the environmentally friendly agricultural products such as organic products. At present, Japan. as a biggest net importing country of the agricultural products. is a market of the international-scale in the organic product marketing. Also. it is expected that the possibility of market expansion in the future is very high. According to the 2000 agricultural census in Japan. the number of the environment-friendly agricultural farmers were 501.556 householders. This number is about 145 percent higher than that of the 1996 results of 204,600 householders. Organic products in Japan were mainly marketed through the producer and consumer cooperation, producers' cooperation, specialized marketing company etc. However, along with the department store, big supermarket and others' participation in the market recently, the marketing channels are diversified. As of October 1999, market sales of the organic products were estimated about 350 billion yen. It is expected that organic certification system, organic products import, resturant industry scale and others will be more influential factors on the market expansion of the organic products in the future.