Development of the hog industry and branded pork projects in Asahi village, Ibaraki prefecture

Abstract

In recent years the branding of agricultural products has been an important process in food production in Japan. The purpose of this paper is to examine the development of the hog industry and "branded pork" projects in Asahi village, Ibaraki Prefecture. Asahi is the biggest pro duction center of hogs in Ibaraki Prefecture. Since the 1970s, Asahi has been home to full-time hog farmers who receive government assistance. Since the hog farmers could not work together to organize an systematic production and shipping system, each farmer expanded the scale of hog management independently. However, currently many farmers are worried about the rising cost of hog management, the occurrence of environmental problems, and a fall in hog prices. Therefore they recognize the importance of branded pork projects and some producers have already started branding. Branded pork projects allow for stable hog prices and reinforce the connection between the production sector and the retail sector. Since these branded pork projects achieve the stable production and supply of traceable, high-quality pork, retailers think highly of them. However, there are some problems, such as the limited extent of branded pork distribution and differences in branded pork handling by each retailer.