TRENDS OF FRESH-CUT VEGETABLES IN JAPAN

Demand and supply of fresh-cut vegetables keeps the increasing trend during the last decade depending on the increase of consumer needs for the convenience. According to the survey report on the fresh-cut vegetables in 1999 (Association of Minimally Processed Fruits and Vegetables industries, AMPFV), there are 161 enterprises producing fresh-cut products in Japan. The sale was estimated to be about 50 billion yen in 1999, and its growth rate from 1990 to 1999 was 6% per year. In 2002, 31%, 23%, 12% and 7% of sales were shared by the food service industry, supermarket, takeout and convenience store, respectively. Raw materials including cabbage, onion, carrot, lettuce, Japanese radish, edible burdock, potato, Welsh onion, Chinese cabbage, pumpkin, sweet pepper and cucumber are used for fresh-cut vegetables. Total input of the vegetables to the fresh-cut production was reported to be 92,672 t in 2002 (AMPFV). In 2002, imported vegetables including onion (3097 t), edible burdock (1221 t), carrot (762 t), Welsh onion (647 t), cabbage (180 t) and pumpkin (148 t) which were mainly imported from China, USA and New Zealand were used.