Recently, two persimmons from Japan were auctioned for a sky-high price of 1 million yen (about 49,000 yuan), setting a new record. Persimmons are produced in many countries around the world, why are persimmons in Japan so expensive?
It is reported that at the auction held in October this year at the Nagoya City Central Wholesale Market in Aichi Prefecture, two persimmons from Gifu Prefecture were auctioned for a sky-high price of 1 million yen (about 49,000 yuan), this persimmon is called "Tianxia Fumai", is a high-grade persimmon brand developed in Gifu Prefecture, a box of two, basically set a bidding record every year, the final price of two persimmons in 2021 is 860,000 yen (about 42,000 yuan). After the auction price was finalized, many customers and staff gathered around the persimmons to take pictures, saying, "500,000 yen per persimmon, it's terrible" and "I haven't seen or eaten it, at least take a picture of it."
Today, let's take a look at the past and present of Japanese persimmons.
Global Persimmon Overview
Persimmons are native to China, mainly astringent persimmons, and were introduced to Japan around the Nara period.
Since its introduction, Japan has improved the original astringent persimmon to cultivate sweet persimmon, and gradually spread to Korea, China, Europe and the United States and other countries. At present, there are more than 1,000 varieties of persimmons in the world, and among the countries and regions with more persimmon production in the world, the top ten countries in 2020 are Chinese mainland, South Korea, Japan, Azerbaijan, Brazil, Uzbekistan, Taiwan, Iran, Israel and Nepal. In addition, there is also a small amount of cultivation in Thailand, the Philippines, Australia, Spain and other countries.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the global trade volume of persimmons in 2020 was about 5 billion tons, and its trade volume was only about 500 million US dollars. Although persimmons have various practical functions for development and utilization, their value needs to be improved. From the perspective of processing methods, the processing of persimmons is most developed in East Asia, South Korea and Japan, and there are more than 100 kinds of related products, but the processing methods in most countries are mainly persimmon cakes and persimmon vinegar products, which are relatively single.
A variety of Japanese sweet persimmons
Japan is an archipelago country with a total area of only 380,000 square kilometers, which is the size of the mainland Yunnan province, and more than three-quarters of the whole of Japan is mountainous and hilly. Due to the small size of Japan, rivers flow into the sea from the middle to the two ends, and it is difficult to store water, so although Japan has a lot of rain, it is still a lack of water resources. It happens that persimmons are drought tolerant and adaptable, whether it is suitable for forest land on the slopes or idle plots on the sides, as long as the soil layer is deep and the soil is weak and acidic, it can be planted.
Japanese sweet persimmon, is a type of persimmon, the fruit is flat, round, different varieties vary in color from light orange yellow to dark orange red, diameter size from 6 cm to 10 cm, weight from 100 g to 350 g. Japanese sweet persimmons are picked from the tree, without deastringency treatment, can be eaten fresh, the meat is crunchy, the flavor is good, and it is resistant to storage and transportation (the storage time is 2~3 times longer than that of astringent persimmons), which is suitable for both courtyard economy and agricultural development in remote mountainous areas.
According to the survey of the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, persimmon ranks fourth in cultivation area, accounting for 9% of the total fruit cultivation area, and the annual output ranks fourth after Japanese pears, with 300,000 tons, accounting for 7% of the total fruit output. In addition, there is an output of 1.8 tons of persimmon cakes. In the 70s of the 20th century, due to the entry of European and American fruits into the Japanese market, the Japanese fruit industry was greatly affected. As a countermeasure, Japan has nurtured and developed persimmons with East Asian characteristics, so persimmon production has been stable, maintaining an output of about 300,000 tons.
There are many varieties of Japanese sweet persimmons, not only completely sweet persimmons and incomplete sweet persimmons; There are also early, medium, and late maturing types. High-quality and abundant varieties include Jiro sweet persimmon, rich sweet persimmon, and Yangfeng sweet persimmon; The varieties with high yield and stable yield are Xingjin No. 20 and Xingjin No. 22; Varieties with a large number of male flowers include Zenji Maru, Shinkaku, and Omiya Early. Among them, the cultivation area of the rich, Jiro and Heikuno gradually expanded, replacing the ancient wild species. After entering the 90s of the 20th century, Fufu, Jiro and Heiji were gradually renewed by their early maturing and excellent bud varieties. Japanese sweet persimmon varieties are constantly optimized, laying the foundation for the development of competitive markets.
Different classifications of Japanese persimmons
Persimmon species in most countries in the world are directly or indirectly derived from Japanese varieties, such as South Korea, which introduced rich and buddy sweet persimmon varieties from Japan to gradually replace local varieties, and the cultivation area of rich and other rapidly expanded, and has become the main cultivars in Korea. The United States began to introduce persimmons from Japan in 1828, and since then, persimmon varieties or grafted seedlings have been introduced from Japan many times, and by the beginning of the 21st century, persimmon varieties with rich and sweet buds have been introduced. China, New Zealand and European countries have also introduced Japanese persimmon seedlings many times.
The industrial chain layout of Japanese persimmons
Japan ranks third in the world in terms of persimmon production, with sweet persimmons accounting for the majority. Japanese persimmons have not only achieved the advantage of fresh fruit preservation sales for more than half a year in the improvement of varieties, but more importantly, more than 100 kinds of deep-processed products and derivative products with persimmons as the main raw material or auxiliary materials.
In the eyes of the Japanese, persimmon trees are treasures all over the body, and persimmon fruits, persimmon stems, persimmon cream, persimmon lacquer, persimmon flowers, persimmon leaves, persimmon bark and persimmon roots can all be used as medicinal purposes. The food category includes flavored persimmon pastries, pickles, health drinks, persimmon banquets and other product series; Daily necessities include persimmon paint dyeing and weaving textiles, more advanced hair dyeing and hair products, beauty and skin care products, persimmon paint masks, facial soap, sterilization, disinfection, insect prevention, and deodorizing products; Persimmon cultural products include graphic publications, cartoon animation models, handicraft series, art series, etc.
In the process of persimmon processing, a large amount of organic fertilizer can be supplied every year to keep the soil for the production of crops high-quality, persimmon leaves because they contain tannic acids that can lower blood lipids, lower blood pressure, lower blood sugar and other functions, as well as rich vitamin C and 17 kinds of amino acids, so they can be made into tea, functional drinks, medicines, etc.
Japan takes persimmon fruit as the link of the industrial chain, running through the primary, secondary and tertiary industries. Among the upstream enterprises, the company jointly conducts new seedling training, processing product research and development, product design, etc. with leading enterprises, scientific research institutes, universities, etc., and constantly updates persimmon planting technology and related production equipment to continuously improve the quality of persimmons. Form a network of relationships that improve the quality of persimmons from the source. In addition, it is also an opportunity to carry out rural eco-tourism, and promote the formation of commercial ecology around health tourism such as farmhouse and production area picking.
In the middle of the industrial chain, persimmon processing plays an important role, integrating persimmon production, processing, transportation, sales, and ecotourism. Using natural plant resources such as persimmon trees, we develop a variety of organic foods, and sell our products nationwide and even overseas through the Internet.
At the same time, the improvement of product quality in the upper and midstream and the optimization of related industrial ecology have also promoted the prosperity of the downstream sales market, and various product experience stores have forced the product quality improvement of the upper and midstream, forming a virtuous circle.
The market circulation of Japanese persimmons
The mainland is the largest country in persimmon production, and the main processed products of persimmons are traditional persimmon cakes, and there are other products such as persimmon vinegar, but they have not formed product advantages and the market size is limited.
According to public information, on the shopping website Amazon Japan, the rich persimmon of 3KG (12 pieces) of Nomura Kakien in Tokyo costs 5,400 yen, about 297 yuan. The price of rich persimmons of the same specification in China is only 64 yuan, which is about 1/5 of the price in Japan.
The "Dancing the World" brand in this auction had an auction price of 35,200 yuan in 2018 and 45,600 yuan in 2019, both of which are higher prices. It is understood that the persimmon "Dancing with the World" is famous for its sweet and crunchy taste and is the highest level of "people in the world". According to Gifu Prefecture, the conditions for being selected as the highest grade "Tianxia Man" are sugar content of more than 25 degrees and weight of more than 310 grams.
Sky-high persimmons rely on the endorsement of varieties, production areas and fruit data, and they cannot enter the sky-high price circle if they do not meet the standard. In fact, in addition to the sufficient selling point of the product itself and the huge investment in research and development of growers, the "eyeball effect" is also a factor that cannot be ignored. Similar to Hokkaido's specialty "Tasuke Watermelon" and "Yubari Melon", Ishikawa Prefecture's specialty "Romantic Ruby" grapes, giant tuna, etc., they have received huge attention from the Japanese and foreign media after generating huge auction prices, and have played a very positive role in publicizing a product in a certain region and the industry as a whole. For these reasons, auctions are mostly held at the beginning of the season.
Agricultural product auction is a common way of trading agricultural products in the world. For example, flower auctions in the Netherlands, fruit and vegetable auctions in Belgium, tea auctions in Sri Lanka and India, tuna auctions in Japan, etc., they are currently representative and influential forms of agricultural product trading. Japan is in the form of legislation, the auction method into the circulation of agricultural products, in the early stage of policy implementation to ensure the orderly and efficient supply chain of agricultural products, effectively solve the problem of agricultural product pricing and rapid distribution, achieve good social and economic effects, but also effectively build the regional brand of agricultural products, the impact to all aspects of regional development, the formation of brand effect, so that the "sky-high price" should be.
After continuous development, Japan's agricultural products auction has formed a sound system and process, a sound logistics management system to ensure logistics efficiency and administrative efficiency, collection - tally - look - auction - delivery, this rigorous process design, to ensure the execution of the auction, so as to build regional brand competitiveness, drive the development of related packaging design, agricultural product development and other industries.
For the Japanese, persimmon trees are the closest fruit trees. As the hometown of persimmons, mainland persimmon culture has a long history, but it is much inferior to being able to connect persimmons to the primary, secondary and tertiary industries like Japan. Tie Ding, director of the Agricultural Research Center of Yuanyi Think Tank and editor-in-chief of the Agricultural Staff, believes that if the brand is prosperous, agriculture will prosper, and the current situation of oversupply of persimmons in the mainland, coupled with the fact that the secondary, and tertiary industries have not formed a combination of the whole industrial chain, which discourages farmers' enthusiasm for planting, all localities should combine the actual situation, establish brand awareness, attach importance to intensive processing, expand different circulation methods, and drive the development of persimmon industry through high-quality and high-quality and high-quality parity to help rural revitalization.
Resources:
[1] Agricultural Brand Alliance: How to turn raw materials into commodities: A look at the "72 changes" of Japanese agricultural products
[2] Yunguo Industry Brain: 2021 Persimmon Industry Development Report