Why Japan?

Food Service (HRI – Hotel. Restaurant and Institutional) sector remains the key focus for many imported products into Japan; it is estimated that well over half of all food service menu items involved imported food stuffs in one form or another. Imported items such as frozen vegetables, frozen potatoes, beef, pork, shrimp, salmon, wine & spirits, cheese are heavily used by the food service sector.

The amount of imported wines consumed by the Japanese has increased by 16.44% in the 5-year period from 2006 to 2010 and is predicted to grow by a further 18.15% between 2011 and 2015. Wine consumption in Japan has become as common as Japanese sake.  In recent years more households will regularly purchase or have a bottle of wine.  Most restaurants will have both white and red wine.  Japan represents a sizable potential growth market for wine due to its growing popularity. More women are choosing wine as their drink of choice due to the lower alcohol content and visual appearance. While the younger male consumers find the taste of beer to be too bitter and would rather enjoy a sweeter beverage such as sparkling wine.