Establishment of Japan Agricultural & Foodstuff Exports (JAFEX)

Feb 03, 2017

The Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) set up a new page—the Japan Agricultural & Foodstuff Exports (JAFEX)—within our international business matching site: Trade Tie-up Promotion Program (TTPP).

JAFEX is a new service to search for various Japanese agricultural, forestry, fishery and food products ranging from rice and fishery products to vegetables. Users can easily get in touch with Japanese business operators through searches based on user information or sales offers by product. Those interested in importing Japanese products can also advertise what they are searching for in the purchase offer section toward Japanese producers, shippers and food companies. The service is available free of charge, both in English and Japanese.

Japanese agricultural and food products are highly regarded abroad for their safety and quality, and products such as green tea, wagyu beef and melons can be found on JAFEX. TTPP has successfully led to exports of such items as tea leaves grown in Kumamoto Prefecture and sea cucumbers in Hokkaido. The addition of JAFEX will further encourage the dissemination of information on such products of Japan. JETRO—with 43 domestic offices and 74 overseas offices—will collaborate with overseas exhibitions and business matching events in order to expand registration of business operators both in and outside Japan.

TTPP—run by JETRO since 2000—has registered users from 165 countries, with approximately 20,000 offers from various fields including industrial and chemical products. Out of these proposals, around 3,700 are related to agricultural, forestry, fishery and food products, including foreign products.

Approximately 600 offers to export Japanese products and 150 inquiries from buyers have been registered on JAFEX so far. JETRO will continue to encourage overseas buyers as well as Japanese producers and distributors to register for this new internet matching service, aiming to further boost exports of Japanese agricultural and food products.