Happy 1st anniversary［HOTTOPICS vol.63］

◯Akiko Ito（Sales Planning Division, Tabérumo Corporation）：

Click here for more information about the brand renewal (Japanese only)

After revamping the brand, we held a reception party on June 28th inviting press, writers, influencers, bloggers, and some others that were chosen from a draw, so I would like to give a report about it.

Until the opening, in contrast to the busy Tabérumo staff preparing the documents and the projector, following the dress code to be in “something green”, women in green dresses or men with small needlepoint designs started to gather. The party began gloriously.

Left：The representative of Tabérumo, Sasaki presenting.　Right：The representative of CHITOSE Group Dr. Fujita with a green hat and Tabérumo staff.

After deepening our knowledge about spirulina and Tabérumo through listening to Sasaki’s presentation, Sasaki held a talk session and photo session inviting Ms. Kelly who works as a model as a guest. A light meal using Tabérumo products that looked nice for SNS and drinks designed by Ms. Kelly were provided as well.

Left：Tabérumo drink that Ms. Kelly designed.　Right：Light meals using Tabérumo products.

Ms. Kelly uses Tabérumo products in her everyday life. All the members of Tabérumo became her fans due her beauty, kindness, and thoughtfulness.

The hall was veiled with Ms. Kelly and Sasaki’s soft atmosphere, the nice tasting refreshments and the brightness of the participants including Ms.Kelly made the party wonderful. Of course Tabérumo left a good impression.

Picture of Ms. Kelly the model, Sasaki, influencers, and the bloggers.

◯Reona Kitamura（Tech & Biz Development Division）：

This time, Tierraponica was chosen by Japan Pavilion’s Innovfest Unbound. I took part in the exhibition which was held in Singapore on June 27-28.

Tierraponica, a company which develops fertigation by utilizing microbes and using organic substances as raw materials, was established in July 2018 as part of “0to1 project” with Mitsui Chemicals Corp.. Not only Japan but countries such as Singapore and UAE where they have to rely on importing vegetables, are aggressively continuing to develop.

Innovfest Unbound, where we exhibited, is an exhibition where innovatory companies with advanced technology gather from all over the world. About 80% of the companies at the exhibition were from the IT industry, so we had a different background from the others. Eventually, we introduced more than 200 people about our business.  I believe it’s because we were so unique to the audience.

Right : Mr. Gledy Aritomi, CEO of Tierraponica, Left：Author

Difference between Japan and Singapore

While staying in Singapore, there were a lot of moments when I felt the difference between Japan and Singapore.

For example, at the talk segment of the exhibition, the speaker takes the platform with a loud BGM that looks like a boxing hall, which was highly entertaining. There were more than 1000 audiences getting into swing and heating up the atmosphere. Ian felt that I had caught a glimpse of the national characteristics of a Singaporean 

The greatest difference is the “sense of speed”. Singapore hasland area of only about the size of the 23 wards of Tokyo, so it is possible to move to another office from any place in 30 minutes, and the next appointment could be arranged very quickly. In Japan, there are some cases where a couple of months have passed by after emailing “talk to you soon”. However, in Singapore, many people such as students or the enterprise’s CEO uses SNS and chat applications. A few days after the exhibition, we also exchanged opinions with companies that were interested in our business vision.

The condition of agricultural development in Singapore

Three years ago since I joined Chitose group, I’ve been supporting agriculture that promotes  sustainable environment in Malaysia from Japan, such as negotiating with a nursery company inside Japan. And in Singapore, I felt that the movement of hydroponics has been speeding up compared to 2 years ago.  

Especially, in recent years, the slogan called “30 by 30” which the singapore government promoted in the aim to raise the 10% food self-sufficiency to 30% by 2030, had a big impact. (In Singapore, the national policy mostly decides the course of business action for good or badl.)

Simply going for ”30 by 30” only, expanding the scale of the existing hydroponics that is starting to popularize in Singapore will make it hard to achieve. Chemical fertilizer isn’t the only way to raise food self-sufficiency quickly, but on the other side, I felt our Tierraponica cultivation which is a recycling-oriented cultivating system that reuses the food waste well inside the country, can be one of the pillars of vegetable cultivation in Singapore as an alternative. 

*In Singapore, ‘biodigester’ which liquid-fertilizes the food waste, is widespread. And it is installed in many shopping malls including Changi Airport.

‘Common language’ that can be acquired by knowing the actual place

The other day, when I arranged the inspection of our plantation and the selling site in Singapore for the person in charge from the nursery company that helps our agriculture business in Malaysia, I felt strongly that “what we see can directly become a common language in promoting business”. This time, by watching the hydroponic farm on the rooftop of a building, the selling site, and coming into contact with food culture of the place, it reminded me of the ‘common language’ again. 

Personally, South-East Asia was the first place I ever visited overseas 10 years ago. I used to travel to countries while taking a leave of absence from university, and got fascinated by the people, food, nature, culture, and the openness of the place. At that time, I avoided visiting Singapore because I had a strong image that it was a trading hub and thought that they have almost no unique culture of their own. 

However, while staying there this time, I found a building near our office which I would say is ‘a band of cultures’, where unique culture nurtured underground even in the small area .
(I broke into a smile thinking there was a cultural connection  across the country, when I found a second hand record of Kenji Endo, which is one of my favorite Japanese singers, on the shelf at a record shop in Singapore.)

At the same time I felt this experience helped to increase the resolution of the image viewed from outside of Singapore, by viewing the country from various angles and increase the knowledge of the ‘common language’.

Development after Innovfest Unbound

It guess I went  a little off the track, however, this stay had proved to have great benefit for our business development, thanks to everyone in JETRO who helped us not only in the time of the exhibition, but also the prior lecture and the follow-up after the event. We are discussing with the local companies we met at the exhibition, and hope that extending Japanese technology to overseas for the sake of environmental maintenance and activating the economy may be the best return for the people at JETRO, and we are thinking of expediting the movement of the business development even more than ever.

A picture with the people from other companies who exhibited at JAPAN PAVILION of Innovfest Unbound

Lastly, it was very encouraging as one who was involved in both projects, when many participants said “I often buy your Chitose strawberries!” while standing at the booth.

People at the front line of strawberry production.

Our projects in Malaysia are basically divided into the farm team and packing team. The assistants of the farm team are mainly strong men laborers from Bangladesh, and most assistants in the packing team are women with Chinese origins that are deft with their hands. 

Most Bangladeshis in the plantation team are Muslims, so they start their day by praying everyday before the sunrise. And after having a quick breakfast, in the cool air with the darkness still in the sky, they harvest the strawberries while getting wet by the evening dew of the strawberry leaves. After awhile, the morning light starts to shine on the strawberries and glitters the drops of dew on the leaves, which is the most beautiful moment.

Strawberries grow healthily when the water from the leaves come out, the morning dew shines, the morning harvest is to work during the twilight.

The farm supervisor explaining about the work details. The founder of Chitose plantation Kinoshita teaching the Bangladeshi farmer.

Managing the strawberries start after the harvest, such as removing old leaves, too many flowers or counter measuring an agriculture disease. And the afternoon part starts after lunch. This is the hottest and harshest moment. The vinyl plastic hothouse becomes more than 35 degrees because of the netting to prevent insects from damaging the plants or crops. They play the Koran through an application on their cellphones or start to sing with a well projected voice as though to give a pep talk, maybe because they become tired due to the hard work or from being in the heat too long. I am sure that no one would hear the Koran played in a strawberry farm in Japan.

When the sun begins to set, their voices get smaller as though the air calmed down, and is replaced by the song ‘Auld Lang Syne’. And right away, the good waft  of curry floats around the farm. When I ask, “what are you eating?” they answer the names of the raw materials such as ‘chicken’, ‘fish’, ‘beef’ with a look of delight. A simple ‘curry’ would be a better answer to me, but to the curry masters who eat curry basically everyday, just by answering ‘curry’ probably sounds too coarse. I felt ashamed of myself thinking that all curry are the same, and at the same time, I thought it was funny because it is about the same as how they express all the different agriculture diseases as ‘Saki (disease)’.

Curry that the curry master makes is good for physical fatigue. He bought a whole chicken at the market.The chicken with it’s head and legs popping out has a carefree face even though it’s going to be wringed in a while.

It’s the men’s world in the farm, on the other hand, it’s the women’s world in the indoor packing center. Strawberries that are picked in the morning from the farm goes to the office and the packing center next to the Chinese restaurant and packed into the tray one by one. Since Japanese strawberries prioritises the taste, the skins are very soft. So, not everyone can do the packing, and even those who can do needs to go through training.

Also, since it’s the kind of work that allows each individual’s characteristic to conspicuously come out, the packing team has to be managed well in order to even the workers. The language they speak are all different. Now, English, Malay, and Chinese fly past each other. They look to be having so much fun working that they are almost like teenagers… so they give me joy whenever I visit and see their working atmosphere.

The size and the grade are separated and arranged beautifully.
The packing team members increased since last year and became livelier.

＊Writer：Yosuke Kataoka（Chitose Agri Laboratory, Bio Engineer）
Worked in the mountains of Malaysia on Borneo island for 2 years after joining Chitose, and thereafter became in charge of the Southeast Asian agriculture project in producing “Chitose strawberry” mainly in Cameron Highlands.

To be continued in the next HOTTOPICS