Japan Focus: Kirin Green's Free, local food sufficiency, fermented foods during pregnancy and more feature in our round-up

‘Refreshing renewals’: Kirin ramps up marketing revamps for non-alcoholic beer and whiskeys​

Beverage giant Kirin has been focusing extra marketing efforts into its non-alcoholic beer option Kirin Green’s Free and its own-brand whiskey Riku in a new push to expand market share.

Kirin Green’s Free is Kirin’s flagship non-alcoholic beer brand, and according to the firm this has been seeing increased growth in the past few months, which it has attributed to its revamping of the product both in terms of packaging and taste.

“After Kirin Green’s Free was revamped earlier this year, sales in April and May this year were 2.3 times higher than that of 2021, and in general we have seen the number of new converted consumers who had not drank non-alcoholic beers before who tried this increase by about five times compared to before the revamp,”​ Kirin Corporate Communications Manager Ataka Takashima said.

Food supply woes: Japan’s food self-sufficiency goals suffer setback after 2021 rate hits decade-low​

Japan’s longstanding ambitions to boost its food self-sufficiency rates by 2030 has suffered a major setback after government data revealed it has dropped to its lowest value in a decade.

Japan has long acknowledged that the country has seem food self-sufficiency rates drop continuously over several decades and has been trying to reverse it. According to the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), this is a great source of concern for the country as it has one of, if not the lowest such ratio worldwide.

“Japan's food self-sufficiency rate has been declining over the long term and is [currently] at the lowest level among developed countries globally,”​ MAFF said via a formal statement.

Fermentation for ‘hibernation’: Infants more likely to sleep 10+ hours if mothers eat fermented foods during pregnancy​

Infants and toddlers are more likely to sleep 10 hours or more if their mothers consume fermented food when pregnant, according to a Japanese study on 64,200 pairs of mothers and children.

The study, titled “Association between maternal fermented food consumption and child sleep duration at the age of 3 years: the Japan Environment and Children’s Study” ​and published in the journal BMC Public Health, showed that fermented food like cheese and miso could reduce the risk of sleep deprivation, but in a limited manner.

“Children need a sufficient amount of good-quality sleep for healthy development. From the neonatal period to infancy and early childhood, sleep patterns change with the child’s development.​

Hot targets: South Australia food export strategy to focus on seven major APAC markets over next five years​

South Australia’s Food and Beverage Five Year Export Strategy will focus on 10 priority markets over the next five years till 2027, with seven of these centred within the Asia Pacific region.

Australia has traditionally placed a lot of focus on its fresh agricultural produce when it comes to exports, in line with the efforts the government has put into its Brand Australia branding, which is aligned with freshness and quality particularly when it comes to food products. The state of South Australia has decided to expand on this to also pump resources into the value-added foods and beverages category over the next five years until 2027, as evidenced by the recently-announced South Australia Food and Beverage Five Year Export Strategy.

“The goal of this strategy is to leverage on South Australia’s strong heritage of collaboration between national and industry bodies so as to together grow our food and beverage exports to A$3bn (US$2.1bn) by 2027 for value-added brands and products, a 3% CAGR from A$2.64bn (US$1.8) in 2021,”​ industry body Food South Australia CEO Catherine Sayer told FoodNavigator-Asia​.

Learning from Japan: Kirin to reveal its tips to maximise healthy ageing among world’s oldest population – Growth Asia Summit​

A senior exec from Japanese nutrition and beverage giant Kirin will be sharing exclusive insights on how the firm is meeting healthy ageing needs among the world’s oldest population at our forthcoming Growth Asia Summit in Singapore.

The three day event will take place at the iconic Marina Bay Sands venue in SIngapore from 11-13 October.

It will feature extensive expert insights from a raft of big-name brands, leading academics, policy experts, and the most innovative suppliers, all focusing on the region with biggest growth potential for food, beverage, supplements, functional products and nutrition – Asia.