Japan is an interesting market for any provider given its large size (127 million people), its higher purchasing power (90% of its population are in the middle class) and the attractive prices they pay. Moreover, the country is dependent in food imports as the local production can only cover 40% of their needs.
However, Japan isn't so dependent on citrus imports because it has a great local production of tangerines. Annually, the country harvests 900,000 tons of Mikan tangerines and similar varieties. This industry, however, is suffering serious setbacks because of the abandonment of crops, as they are being replaced for more profitable ones, and the ageing of farmers. 60% of the farmers are over 65 years old and it's difficult for them to harvest the tangerine growing on the slopes. 15 years ago the production exceeded 1.5 million tons per year, and it is currently less than one million. The production of other citrus is very small: 15,000 tons of lime and 5,000 tons of oranges.
To complete local production, Japan imports 350,000 tons annually. Almost half of the imports correspond to grapefruit. The Japanese are big consumers of this fruit, even though it is not grown locally. Japan's major suppliers of grapefruit are the U.S. (110,000 tonnes) and South Africa (40,000 tons). The second most important citrus imports are for oranges. Given its limited local production, Japan has to import almost everything it consumes. Here again, the main supplier is the U.S. (100,000 tons) and Australia (30,000 tons). Japan imports 35,000 tons of limes from the U.S. and 12,000 tons from Chile. There are very few imports of tangerine because the country is provisioned by its own production for most of the year. They only import tangerines towards the end of their campaign and small quantities during summer. The major supplier of tangerines is also the U.S. with some 15,000 tons of Mineolas a year. Australia provides 2,000 tons of Murcott. There's been a growing trend in imports of sweet citrus in recent years, especially of tangerine. Limes have had a declining trend, since Japan is encouraging local production, thereby replacing imports.
Citrus consumption has fallen in recent years, mainly because these fruits are consumed by the older generations and are not well suited to modern habits. The exception to this is the orange, which has a stable consumption because, as it is sweeter than the grapefruit, it is replacing it.
Thus, Japanese imports of citrus, especially of sweet citrus, are not as big as one would expect. Moreover, most of this market is in the hands of the USA and other suppliers are only present during the counter season. This is the case for Australia with sweet citrus, Chile with limes and South Africa with grapefruit. The participation of other countries is minimal and, after attempting to export citrus to this market, most have stopped shipping citrus to Japan.
Among the causes of failure are: fruit quality that did not convince the Japanese, the inability to compete with the USA, phytosanitary protocols that could not be met, and differences in the way of carrying out business. This last point is extremely important because of the strong cultural differences and idiosyncrasies with the Japanese. To be successful you have to learn and adjust to the different forms of trading. Therefore, despite Japan's attractiveness, it is a very difficult market to conquer.
Source: Topinfo.com