Every summer, picking a few of the watermelon stalls piled up on the side of the road and going home, turning on the air conditioner, watching TV while digging with a spoon to eat, is Chinese the most common way to beat the heat. There are few watermelon stalls on the side of the road in Japanese cities, and you can only buy them at supermarket fruit counters or specialty fruit stores (Yahsubuya).
In Tokyo, it's almost impossible for locals to buy whole large watermelons to go home, and more often to buy sliced watermelons in sealed packages (as are many other fruits). Merchants will cut watermelon into 1/2, 1/8, or even smaller watermelon chunks and sell them, so that people can buy enough to taste according to their own population.
Analyze the causes of this problem from the two dimensions of sales and industry:
I wonder if you've ever heard of "Sembikiya"? That's right, the high-end fruit store in Japan that is famous for selling the most expensive, perfect, and rarest fruits, and the main store in Nihonbashi, Tokyo, looks like a jewelry store.
This shop can no longer be simply called a fruit shop, but also a gift shop. According to traditional Japanese custom, expensive fruits are used as gifts for special occasions, such as weddings, business transactions, or even to visit patients. Japanese fruits are already expensive, and the products of Senshaya are even more expensive. Even fruit is sold so expensive, can this business last? Don't say, this brand has a history of more than 180 years, not only the rich people in Japan, but also many foreign tourists come to spend it.
In the town of Senkaku (present-day Koshiya City, Saitama Prefecture), a samurai named Benzo Ohshima, in Saitama Prefecture, ran a dojo that taught javelin techniques. At the end of the Edo period, fewer and fewer people aspired to become samurai, so in 1843 Benzo set up a stall under the name "Senkaiya Benzo" in the open space of the dojo. At that time, the fruits were mainly persimmons, peaches, oranges, grapes, and watermelons, and the price was also very cheap, but you could sell it without saving much money.
In 1864, the second generation "Oshima Bunzo" inherited the signboard. Bunzo's wife, "Mura", was married from the Asakusa bonito shop "Daiqing" (which supplies many high-end Japanese restaurants), and the main job of "Mura" was to provide tea to guests at the Asakusa Hachizen Restaurant (800 Zen is a high-ranking and high-end restaurant kiosk used by literati and inkers in various domains), while promoting the products in Senkaya to the upper class. While his business was prosperous, Senkaiya paid more and more attention to the quality of its products, and later became a supplier of fruits for the Tokugawa shogunate.
In 1867, the third generation "Daijiro Oshima" moved the store to Nihonbashi-Muromachi, where commerce was prosperous, and established the current Sensaiya Main Store. By this time, the Westerners had knocked on the gateway to Japan with cannons, and the Tokugawa shogunate government had fallen. Yoyojiro renovated the shop into a stylish three-story Western-style house and began selling imported fruits from abroad. Daijiro often went to ports where foreign ships docked in Yokohama and other places, and asked the crew: Can you sell me some fruit? After successfully buying bananas and pineapples, which were considered precious fruits by the Japanese at the time, Senkaiya became Japan's first fruit specialty store and opened a "fruit cafeteria". At Senkaiya Restaurant, customers can enjoy fresh juices, fruit cakes and fresh fruit cuts.
Three generations later, the Kyobashi Sengaiya branch in 1881 and the Ginza Senkaiya branch in 1894 were opened. In 1998, the sixth-generation Hiroshi Oshima became president, and it was discovered that Senkaiya was gradually losing its appeal to young customers, so the company re-evaluated the Senkaiya brand, lowered the threshold for entering the store with young people as the target group, and made fruits with a unit price of thousands of yen into fruit desserts that could be purchased for hundreds of yen, thus attracting a large number of customers again.
Fruits can be sold at high prices, which is inseparable from the assistance of Japan's geographical conditions. Japan's land area is small (378,000 square kilometers), and mountainous and hilly areas account for 71% of the country's land, plains account for less than 30% of the country's plain area, and the available arable land area is less (the overall situation is similar to Yunnan Province in China, but not as hot and humid as Yunnan), and it is too late to grow grain and vegetables, which limits the cultivation of fruit types, resulting in less total fruit production in Japan.
Secondly, in Europe, the origin of Western culture, most of them are hard water that cannot be drunk directly, and only a few crops can provide vitamins throughout the year, so fruits rich in water and vitamins are considered necessary for daily life. The Japanese diet is significantly Europeanized and full of yearning for fruits. However, until Japan entered a period of rapid economic development, fruit was still a luxury for Japanese people, and it could only be eaten on festive days. According to a 2011 estimate by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Japan's per capita fruit intake is 50.9 kilograms a year, less than half that of European countries compared with Italy's 149.0 kilograms and France's 116.1 kilograms.
As a high-end fruit shop, Senkaiya also plays a role in the quality of the fruit itself. Everyone else buys from Tokyo's Central Wholesale Market, while Senkaiya selects fruits that are selected from middlemen and reboxed. The store's signature product is musk melon from Shizuoka Prefecture, which has the most sunshine. Every cantaloupe "lives" in a weathered greenhouse from the beginning of the seed. Light, moisture, data management, nutrient solution flows in the pipeline 24 hours a day. In the growth process, as long as the melon grows crooked, it is directly uprooted! In the hot summer, I will bring paper hats to the melon, and in the cold winter, there will be a heater to keep warm. One vine and one fruit are cultivated until the melons are ripe, and the whole process is managed from farm packaging to distribution, ensuring that each one can be traced back to the source.
There are expensive reasons, and the service of Senkaiya is impeccable. When you walk into the Thousand Boils House, the oncoming salesman will not rudely ask you how many pounds to buy, but will carefully ask your needs:
"May I ask sir, what day will you enjoy fruit?"
"Excuse me, sir, this melon has only been picked for three days, and tomorrow will be the best time to eat it."
"Sir, the column you see is a fruit that has passed its best time, and it will be slightly cheaper."
Every inquiry can see the intentions of Senkaiya. More than 90% of the fruits sold at Senkaiya are used for gifts. Japan's elite have long been accustomed to giving expensive fruits as gifts for friends and relatives. If you are promoted, you have to give gifts, if you have a child, you have to give gifts, if you are sick, you have to give gifts, and you have to give gifts for big and small things anyway. What gift could be more face-saving than a Senkaya that gave royal fruits?
In order to get closer to consumers, Senkaiya also holds a regular "All the Fruits" event every year, where you can enjoy 20~24 kinds of seasonal fruits, as well as our special black tea, fruit curry, steak and other dishes for only 6,480 yen, which will definitely satisfy the hearts of foodies. It's just that the number is limited, and admission tickets are often sold in seconds. This is how Senkaiya has been changing and developing, but there are also insistences, such as Oshima's family motto "Don't be extravagant (not proud), don't be anxious (don't be impatient), don't be eager (don't be greedy). "Development is not aimed at rapid growth, the direction is always to improve customer satisfaction." Perhaps, this is the way this long-established Japanese brand can be operated for hundreds of years.
Let's talk about industry. Except for a certain degree of intervention in the production and distribution of rice, Japan has liberalized all other agricultural products, and farmers choose to cultivate them according to the market information provided by agricultural cooperatives and good seeds. Japan's agricultural production follows regional characteristics, and farmers are not "small and complete", only "large and specialized". Those who grow strawberries plant strawberries, those who grow tomatoes grow tomatoes, and those who grow flowers plant flowers.
In addition to the monopoly of agricultural cooperatives in the buying and selling links, there is also tariff protection. As long as Japan produces in China, it is often subject to alarmingly high tariffs, on the one hand, extremely strict inspection and quarantine are implemented, and on the other hand, it also ensures the high price of its own agricultural products, which raises the income of farmers. Under the "careful care" of the Japanese government, the average annual income of Japanese farmers exceeds 7 million yen, which is roughly equivalent to that of local civil servants and much higher than the income of ordinary urban white-collar workers.
The strict organic soil management system may be the biggest difference in agricultural cultivation between China and Japan. For example, the organic matter content of domestic orchards is mostly below 1.0%, and the orchard management that can reach 1.5% is quite good, and orchards that can reach 2.0% can be described as rare, while the organic matter content of Japanese orchards can generally reach more than 6.8%.
Some people may not have a concept of the numbers, but organic matter content is an important indicator of soil fertility. Organic matter is an important source of soil nutrients, which can promote the formation of soil structure, improve soil physical properties, improve soil fertilizer retention capacity and buffer performance. Japanese cultivation is divided into three categories, one is organic cultivation (JAS), 100% does not allow the use of pesticides; One is special cultivation, that is, green cultivation, which reduces the use of pesticides by 50% compared to ordinary cultivation; The third is ordinary cultivation, that is, cultivation that normally uses pesticides and fertilizers, and must also meet the minimum environmental standards in Japan.
The price gap between different grades of agricultural products is still very large, which is easy to understand, after all, the production cost is not the same. China vigorously promotes organic agriculture, which is unrealistic, after all, China's population size is there, but it is still necessary to use more compost, green manure, crop residues and other natural or artificial organic substances to reduce the harm of some chemical fertilizers and pesticides to the soil. After all, no matter how high your crop yield is, if the taste is not good, it will not sell at a price.
The most common treasure rice husk, which many plantations in Japan use to improve the soil. Rice husks are a combination of cellulose and silicon with a high nitrogen-to-carbon ratio and are not perishable. In winter, laying a layer of rice husk on the soil is equivalent to covering it with a warm "quilt", which can also increase the ground temperature, avoid microorganisms from being hit by the cold, and the cost is low, and the cost-effective return is extremely high.
The use of straw is slightly more cumbersome than rice husk. Since straw is high in cellulose, it needs to be crushed before being covered into the soil. After 1-2 years, the crushed straw is turned into the soil along with fertilizer and other organic matter on the surface, and soon becomes a source of nutrition for the microorganisms in the soil.
When it comes to breeding vegetables and fruits, Japan does have a brush!
The famous red Fuji apple is selected and bred in Japan, the big and sweet Jufeng grape is selected and bred in Japan, the famous sunshine rose grape is selected and bred in Japan, the hot autumn moon pear is selected and bred in Japan, the fashionable Venus golden apple is selected and bred in Japan, and the delicious Ehime No. 38 is still bred in Japan...
From 1939 to 1941, Japan crossed Fuji apples by using the "Kokumitsu apple and Marshal apple" selected by the United States. Later, Japan selected and bred a variety that is easy to color from the bud varieties of Fuji apples, which is now red Fuji apples.
In 1980, the mainland began to introduce red Fuji apples in small quantities. In the past, the cultivation of red Fuji apples was mainly in several red Fujiyou production areas such as Yantai, Weihai and Luochuan, but now the cultivation area of red Fuji apples has expanded to the whole country, and "the output is close to excess". Red Fuji apples in excellent production areas with a purchase price of 2-3 yuan / jin from the place of origin are usually sold for 8-10 yuan / jin at the retail end. A pound of apples has caught up with half a kilogram of pork, how many consumers are willing to "eat an apple a day"? So there are still problems.
Many people mistakenly think that Jufeng is our native grape variety. In fact, the origin of Jufeng grapes is in Japan. In the 30s of last century, the Ori Institute of Agriculture in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan, tried to cross the grape variety "Ishihara Early" in Okayama Prefecture with the European and American grape variety "センテニアル", and finally succeeded in breeding. Because the institute could see the magnificent Mt. Fuji when it looked up, it was named "Jumine Grape".
Japanese farmers generally believe that the Jufeng grape is a badly flawed grape variety. Its leaves are larger, the tree is too strong, and the flowers and fruits are very easy to shed. Jufeng grapes have been neglected in Japan for a long time, and were introduced to China in 1959, when domestic grape varieties, longan grapes, milk grapes, rose grapes, "Zeshan No. 1" grapes, etc., are small grape varieties, and the large Jufeng grapes once they came out, also made people shine, setting off a wave of Jufeng grape fever in the market.
In the 60s of last century, the Yamanashi Prefecture Fruit Tree Experimental Ground in Japan tried to hybridize Jufeng grapes with seedless white grapes to cultivate a "premature, seedless" black grapes, which is the "summer black grapes" we are very familiar with. Compared with Jufeng, summer black is more fragrant, crispy and sweet, with a compact skin and more resistant to transportation.
In recent years, there has also been a green grape called "sunshine rose". Originally a European and American hybrid, the Japanese fruit tree testing ground An Yunjin Research Department, selected "An Yijin No. 21" and "Bainan" two grapes, crossed to cultivate a new variety, which was launched in 2006, this is the sunshine rose. Sunshine rose is characterized by its large, largely seedless fruit, bright skin, crisp taste, extremely sweet, rich rose fragrance, and resistant to transport and storage.
The best of the sunshine roses is the "Haruo" of Okayama, Japan. Located in the southwest corner of Honshu, it is rich in grapes and white peaches, and the area has extremely abundant sunshine and little rainfall throughout the year, nicknamed the "Land of Sunny Days". Initially in the Japanese market, a bunch of Qingwang grapes was equivalent to about 150 yuan. After being introduced into China and planted on a large scale, the production of sunshine rose grapes increased greatly, from a few hundred yuan a pound to less than ten yuan, and entered ordinary people's families.
"Partial science" is the biggest problem in Japanese agriculture right now. Under the monopoly pricing, Japanese young people are generally very cautious about eating fruit, and the first impression of Japanese people who come to China is that Chinese fruits are too cheap. It is not because Japan is a developed country that fruit prices are high. If there is no high-price monopoly, the market cannot support the price of fruit selling at such a high price based on the quality of the fruit alone.
But the Japanese fruit industry still has something to learn from in stages. Because we just encountered the problem of "rising output, oversupply, and insufficient quality". This is true for apples, grapes, citrus, pears, etc., and if you want to improve the quality of fruits and vegetables, you can only rely on your own technology accumulation.
As early as December 24, 1998, the Japanese government implemented the Seedling Law in order to protect the interests of enterprises or individuals in improving seeds. In 2003 and 2021, the House of Representatives of the Japanese Diet passed amendments and issued a new Seedling Law, which followed up with strict protection of more than 1,900 kinds of fruits and vegetables and prohibited their flow out of Japan.
Absolute quality and low price do not exist, and Egg Brother advocates that you get what you pay for. In the future, China's fruit industry should be more "hierarchical", with different quality and different prices to meet the consumption needs of different groups.