GLOBAL INDEX 2013 KUBOTA CORPORATE COMMUNICATION MAGAZINE

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12The Affinity between Hong Kong and Japanese Food.A “Japanese Food Boom” Has Taken Hold in Hong Kong.Gathering various foods from all around the world, Hong Kong is a veritable treasure house of culinary delights. One of the realities of Hong Kong’s food situation is that it is dependent on imports for most of its farm products, with 100% of rice consumed there being imported. Japanese rice imports account for only a meager proportion, but Japanese food has long earned the love of people in Hong Kong.In the fast-growing Southeast Asian region, Hong Kong, along with Singapore, is one area where Japanese food enjoys high penetration. Although restaurants serving Chinese cuisine account for 30.3% (4,770 establishments) of all food services, Japanese restaurants represent 6.9% (1,080 establishments) of the total, ahead of restaurants serving Italian, French, Korean, and other national cuisines.*2 In recent years, Japanese food service chains serving conveyor belt sushi, ramen, tonkatsu deep-fried pork cutlets, and curry and rice, as well as high-end Japanese restaurants, have set up shop in Hong Kong and seen a steady increase in clientele.Taking notice of this high affinity for Japanese cuisine in Hong Kong, Kubota’s Strategy Planning Office surveyed the market there in March 2011. They forged relationships with people there while conducting various surveys, thus leading to Kubota’s very own network in the region.As Kubota came to learn more about players in the local rice market and the forms of distribution there, they realized that up to around 90% of rice in Hong Kong is used by businesses, including food services. People in Hong Kong eat out much more frequently than those in Japan, with the latter dining out an average of only 1.4 times per week (according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications), whereas the former eat out 6.9 times per week on average (according to a private research institute). Kubota’s goal had become clear—supplying rice from Niigata first to food services with the main focus being placed on Japanese restaurants, and then moving on to the retail market to gradually reach dinner tables in private homes.A long-time food distribution business insider in Hong Kong who now owns seven Japanese restaurants there, Hiroshi Yoshida is also President of the Hong Kong Japanese Restaurant Association. “Now that the third Japanese cuisine boom has arrived in Hong Kong, we are being presented with a golden opportunity to introduce Japanese rice here,” Yoshida notes. “Over the past three decades, TV dramas, music, and other forms of subculture from Japan have resulted in a series of Japanese cuisine booms here. We are now witnessing the third boom, owing to the increased number of people from Hong Kong visiting Japan and promotions of local food by various prefectures in Japan. This opportunity is too important to pass up. When I first heard about the plan to export rice from Kubota, I was more than impressed by their underlying motive, which was to benefit farmers. Success or failure will depend on how we can effectively let people in Hong Kong experience the superb taste of Japanese rice. I really hope that this project will be a major success, and I will spare no effort to support it.”“We need a ‘story’ to let Hong Kong people really experience the tastiness of Japanese rice,” points out Director Motoaki Komiya, Business Development Department of the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) Hong Kong.“Hong Kong people have good taste, but they favor knowledge about food so much that they are often said to ‘taste with their brains.’ It is thus important to convince them of how good Japanese rice is with a story, so that we can help them to deepen their understanding of it. I want to ask the exporters of Japanese rice to do something that helps to expand the market for Japanese cuisine as a whole. If the market does not grow, then different varieties of Japanese rice from different areas will end up competing against each other over the same small slice of the pie. I hope that Kubota will focus on broadening the width and depth of the market through its endeavors to export rice,” Komiya continues.Hiroshi Umezu, a consul at the Consulate-General of Japan in Hong Kong, also expects much from this initiative by Kubota. “I was profoundly surprised at how good the locally milled rice marketed by Kubota is. The difference in taste is unmistakable compared with other Japanese brands of rice available here. I really want people in Hong Kong to know this exquisite flavor. It certainly is an understatement to say that people in Hong Kong show a strong interest in what they eat, and they have a firm trust in the safety and quality of Japanese cuisine. I have only the highest hopes for Kubota’s unique project.”Expectations are running high for Kubota’s Japanese rice export project in Hong Kong.*2 Census and Statistics Department (Hong Kong) (as of July 25, 2012)Giving Back to the Farmers—the Japanese Rice Export ProjectFor the Benefit of Farmers-I

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