Past and present Japanese asparagus production and marketing
2002
Satō, Tōru | Motoki, S.
In the early 1920s, a cannery in northern Japan, commercialized white asparagus production. White asparagus production rapidly changed into green asparagus farming. Green asparagus exceeded white in production yield in 1978, and production has expanded until today. Imported asparagus is kept in the custody of bonded sheds until the import is permitted. Rotting often occurs by the time asparagus gets to the market. The price gap between domestic and imported asparagus is understandable because of the difference in quality. There are many consumers who buy only domestic products. While imported asparagus has quality problems, the amount of imported asparagus is now increasing especially after 1992. Asparagus imports reached domestic production levels in 1999, rising to 211% of the import level in 1990. Forty-three thousand and one hundred seventy-nine tons of asparagus were handled in major wholesale market in 1995. This is 2.5- times that in 1982 when asparagus was reported the first time. Asparagus is compared with cucumbers. Cucumbers have been the highest-prized vegetable in wholesale value for a long time, while the wholesale quantity has recently been decreasing. There are only a few recipes for cucumbers and that is one of reasons why cucumbers are decreasing. This is the opposite of the case of asparagus. Almost all of production costs for asparagus are less than those for cucumbers.
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