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Opportunities for agricultural innovations in Japan
Like their Dutch colleagues, Japanese farmers have succession problems. Many young people move to the city and the average farmer is 67 years old. In Japan there is therefore a great need for technologies that take work off your hands. Dutch entrepreneurs with innovations in agribusiness were therefore eager to go on a trade mission to Japan in June 2020, but corona threw a spanner in the works.
The trade mission led by State Secretary Mona Keijzer continued at the beginning of this month, but digitally. The mission of Oost NL, the development agency of the Eastern Netherlands, is part of a broader event of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate and the Netherlands Enterprise Agency. From the Netherlands there were 44 participants from 36 companies and organizations for the Smart Agri component. 450 people from Japan took part, 60% of whom were specifically interested in digitization and the agricultural sector.
Trade agreement concluded in 2019
An important reason for East NL to co-organize a trade mission to Japan for the first time is a trade agreement that was concluded with the country in 2019. The levies from Japan were then reduced and doing business has become easier, says Belqis Askaryar, project manager International Trade Development at Oost NL. According to Askaryar, there are opportunities for Dutch technological solutions in the Japanese agricultural sector.
"The Netherlands and Japan complement each other well in the field of smart agriculture. We are emphatically working on this in the east of the Netherlands. Japan is on the eve of a digitization process and many subsidies are available. Dutch companies can benefit from this and offer innovative products. market so that companies can continue to develop. The country is also struggling with an aging population. The average age of farmers is 67 years and the country is not very self-sufficient. Japanese technology giants such as Mitsubishi are also entering the sector. technological products, they will also produce food in a smart way."
'Dutch companies underestimate opportunities'
Someone who already has experience in doing business with Japan is Jan Lok Managing Director Emerging Markets CRV 4 all-international. He was one of the Dutch participants in the virtual trade mission. "Many Dutch companies sometimes underestimate the opportunities there," says Lok. The reason for participating in the trade mission was purely to increase visibility, explains Lok. "We already have a customer base there and a distributor that we are happy with."
Lok himself was in Japan two years ago and has a good idea of what is going on with the dairy farmers. "Japanese dairy farming faces similar problems as in the Netherlands: an aging farmer population, the environment and manure processing and high feed costs. The feed has to be imported there."
The sperm from CRV can help with those problems, says Lok. "Every bull and cow has certain characteristics that allow you to continue breeding. For example, we breed cows that use feed more efficiently and are less harmful to the environment. Feed that is not converted into milk or meat produces more manure or greenhouse gases. "We also select cows that can be milked more efficiently on milking robots. One cow learns faster and goes there more often, that is partly hereditary. We developed that together with Lely."
Doing business with Japan requires patience
There are not only opportunities in Japan, but also challenges. The biggest is the Japanese culture and the way of interacting with each other, according to the experiences of various companies. Lok: "Japan is very traditional. There are fixed systems and cooperatives that are often opaque to an outsider and where it is not clear who exercises influence. You do not have direct influence on your end customers, it runs through different parties. You depend on partners. , distributor and other institutions."
Thorough preparation is important. "The market is not that flexible. You have to know which step to take when and how. Japanese culture is very different from ours, you can make serious blunders. China is much more forgiving. Prepare very well: what will you do and not." Mark Kroese, Trioliet's Export Sales Manager, agrees. "The cultural difference is quite large. You have to make a clear choice with whom you will work and who not. Not today to one and tomorrow to the other."
Doing business with Japan requires patience, says Askaryar van Oost NL. "You can't get there in one conversation. Japanese companies and entrepreneurs are very detailed, they can ask a hundred questions and want to know everything from A to Z. That takes a lot of time, a few times to Japan, good conversations, providing a lot of information. who come here. But if you have a foot in the door and they are serious, then you are also assured of a long relationship.
Furthermore, according to Kroese, you have to take into account different climatic conditions in such a large country. "Some machines are suitable for the north and others for tropical temperatures. You have to offer a machine in such a way that it works, for example with certain oil or tires."
For Trioliet, Japan is 'quite a growth market for automatic feeding'. "With the aging population, the many growing family businesses and the difficulty it takes to find staff. Japan also has high-quality livestock farming, comparable to Western Europe, with companies with 80, 100 or 120 cows."
Physical mission as soon as you can
Both Lok and Kroese think the digital trade mission is a good alternative in this corona time, but not a replacement for a real trade mission. "It was excellently organized with a good program that ran fine, but you don't see each other. For it to have a real effect, you should have it followed up with a physical mission," said Lok. Oost NL plans to 'as soon as the weather is possible, preferably this autumn or the spring of 2022' with a physical mission that way.
Linda van Eekeres
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