World Grain - October 2007 - 25

COUNTRYFOCUS

in its flour milling division were 87,431
million yen, a decrease of 0.4%.
According to Nippon, Japan's per
capita consumption of wheat per year
averages 32 kilograms, of which bread
comprises just over 40%, noodles over
30%, snacks just over 10% and household and other uses just over 10%.
"Amid sluggish domestic demand for
wheat flour in recent years, the flour
milling industry faced an increasingly
adverse business environment characterized by customer preference for
low-priced products," Nippon said in
its year-end financial statement.
"In February 2006, the Japanese government's selling price of raw wheat
was reduced for the first time in two
years, and in March 2006, wheat flour
sales prices were reduced," it said. "In
this situation, the Group strengthened
quality control to ensure food safety
and reliability, and engaged in devel-

**
-

opment of new products and vigorous
marketing activities including holding
of technical and management seminars
and promotion of proposal-driven marketing in order to meet customer needs
and diversifying preferences concerning food.
"Regarding sales of wheat flour, although there was little growth in shipments of wheat flour for bread within
Japan, shipments of wheat flour for
noodles increased slightly," it said. "As
a result, the total volume of shipments
was virtually unchanged from the same
period of the previous year."
FEED IMPORTS

Japan is a major importer of maize
for animal feed, although, according
to the USDA attaché, in the long term
"the downward trend in livestock population appears irreversible, and feed
demand in Japan is expected to decline

slowly but surely." Total demand for
feed maize, which forms 48% to 50%
of compound feed, is roughly 11.9 million tonnes, with 5.3 million going to
the poultry sector.
USDA put Japan's self-sufficiency
for feed grains at just 25% in 2005,
compared with 61% for food grains.
According to another USDA report,
focusing on the demand for genetically
modified products, Japan is the world's
largest importer of foods and feeds
that have been produced using modern
biotechnology. To date, Japan has approved 77 biotech events for food, 50
for feed, 55 for planting and 14 for food
WG
additives.
Chris Lyddon is World Grain's European editor.
He may be contacted at: chris.lyddon@
ntlworld.com.
We want to hear from you - Send comments and
inquiries to worldgrain@sosland.com. For reprints of
WG articles, e-mail reprints@sosland.com.

PRADO SILOS
The best answer too your storage requirements

iark

Global answers to your stora ge,handling
and transport requirements for grain,
cereals and oily seeds.
Wor ldwide market requirement solutions.
Short delivery terms.
Our l arge exper i ence i s our

i 1 ii Ii IF
S

HEAD OFFICE:
María de Molina, 39 6° B
28006 Madrid
SPAIN
Tel: + 34 902 22 14 41
Fax: + 34 902 22 14 42
Email: prado@pradotm.com
www.pradotm.com

best

guarantee.

P R A D OI

For more information, see Page 78.

www.World-Grain.com / World Grain / October 2007

http://www.pradotm.com http://www.World-Grain.com

World Grain - October 2007

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of World Grain - October 2007