The New Nation - Internet Edition

BUSINESS REPORT

To promote local food items in Japanese market and to explore new opportunities in Japan, JETRO the Official Trade and Investment Promotion agency of the Government of Japan has taken an initiative to facilitate local food and food items manufacturers (Agricultural Products, Eggs and Poultry, Frozen Food Products, Fruits and Vegetables, Herbal & Organic Products, Seafood, Coffee and Tea, Fruit Juice, Mineral Water, Soft Drinks etc) to enter Japanese market by participating FOODEX in Japan.

FOODEX Japan is the biggest food and beverage exhibition in the Asia and the whole of the Asia Pacific region. This is a global food exhibition; the world attends FOODEX Japan to exhibit their food and beverage with the aim of entering the Japanese market.

In 2007 this world-class event attracted 95,719 registered visitors comprising of wholesalers, importers, retailers and food manufacturers. The exhibition comprised of 3,479 booths, with exhibitors of 2425 from 64 counties and regions.

Next FOODEX Japan 2008 will be held at Makuhari Messe, Nippon Convention Center, Chiba-city in Japan during March 11-14, 2008. For local companies JETRO has subsidised the participation fee by 89 per cent for each 9 sqm (3mX3m) booth. Along with providing subsidised booth, JETRO will arrange free supermarket tour, Interpreters for business negotiations, Consultation services by experts in the Japanese food industry, Public relations activities for better understanding of Japanese business custom's and to have sufficient knowledge to do business with Japanese market.

To attract participants for next 'FOODEX 2008,' JETRO Dhaka invites application from companies which do not have any agent, dealer or partner in Japan through related associations. Enormous response was received and finally five companies have been tentatively selected. Among them, one company has finally been selected. The company is Bangla Natural Agro Ltd. The company will demonstrate Neem Leaf, Turmeric, Guava leaf, Neem Cake, Bitter Gourd etc during the exhibition.

It should be noted here that, Bangla Natural Agro Limited was also used JETRO support to participate for FOODEX 2007. During the FOODEX 2007, products of Bangla Natural Agro Limited got enormous attention from visitors. Among all the 1668 overseas exhibitors the product (Neem leaf) of the Bangladeshi company ranked 14th position as a new product in Japanese market. For more information of FOODEX Japan 2007 please log onto http://www2.jma.or.jp/foodexlen/index.html

JETRO hopes that it is a good opportunity for local companies to introduce their goods to promising Japanese food market that import 60 per cent of total needs of food a demands and the current size of this market is about 1.3 trillion yen and is expected to grow in the future.