Japanese Frozen Food Market Gains Despite Population Loss, Disasters: But domestic production growth is outpaced by imports. Retail share increasing

摘要

Never mind the declining population. Never mind the triple disaster panic. Frozen food consumption is on the rise in Japan, up 4.3% in 2011 to 2.564 million tons in volume and 3.3% to 864 billion in value. Per capita consumption went from 19.2 to 20.1kilograms. Yet there are signs that the 2011 earthquake, tsunami and resulting meltdowns of three nuclear reactors at Fukushima have had an impact. Domestic frozen food production for the year was up only 1.3% in volume to 1.418 million tons, and 0.5% in value to 635 billion. Not only that, but the number of plants fell from 599 to 572. Imports of frozen vegetables and frozen prepared foods, meanwhile, both rose by more than eight percent.