Cutting-Edge Food Producer in Fukushima Gets Financial Boost

 

Shirakawa Goyo Club, a food-processing company in Fukushima, has joined the list of entrepreneurial initiatives receiving support from the Mitsubishi Corporation Disaster Relief Foundation (MCDRF). This investment, of 50 million yen, complements loan support obtained from the Toho Bank, Ltd., a local financial institution, and enables the company to complete its “Shirakawa Kizuna Farm” project. The project involves the simultaneous opening of a food processing plant alongside a vegetable farming plant factory. Operating under the theme “The World’s Safest Unique Foods from Shirakawa,” Shirakawa Goyo is seeking to develop its engagement in “sixth-order industries,” based on the generation of high added value, ranging from production to the processing and sale of agricultural products. The company will focus on the manufacture of mousses for consumption primarily by the elderly.

 

Shirakawa Goyo was founded by farmers in Fukushima with the aim of independently resolving the issues facing local farmers, including how to effectively manage their crops from production through to marketing. Through the initiative, healthy vegetables grown under strictly controlled hygienic conditions, based on cutting-edge sensor and lighting technologies, are used to produce mousses for sale to hospitals and nursing homes for the elderly. The company has also set up a welfare facility on its premises to care for the elderly. By making use of this facility, persons who would not normally be able to work due to elderly care responsibilities are now able to do so. This kind of arrangement is among the first of its kind in Japan.

 

The completed plant factory will produce some 7.5 million units of mousse per year from 100 tons of spinach cultivated by the company, along with pumpkin and tomato cultivated by locally contracted farmers. The company aims to reach sales of around 6 million yen in five years through the sale of its food products to local hospitals and nursing homes, as well as through local door-to-door delivery. The business will initially employ 30 people, including those with limited ability to work due to elderly care responsibilities and farmers, but as operations expand to include school-lunch centers, home deliveries and other customer bases, the plan is to employ as many as 100 persons. 

 

MCDRF’s support for Shirakawa Goyo was decided on the basis of the contribution it stands to make to the revitalization of economy and employment generation in Fukushima. Three years and eight months have passed since the Great East Japan Earthquake, but recovery efforts in areas that suffered severe damage are far from over. MCDRF intends to continue collaborating with local financial institutions such as Toho Bank to support efforts aimed at the revitalization of industry and employment creation, and overall economic recovery in areas affected by the disaster.

Reference Information

 

 Headquarters: 96-5, Michiba-komichi, Shirakawa City, Fukushima, Japan

Date Established: March 11, 2013

Capital: 2.08 million yen

Capital Reserve: 1.08 million yen  

Business Activities: Food-processing and sales

Representative: Kouji Yoshida, Representative Director

 

 Headquarters: 3-25, Omachi, Fukushima City, Fukushima, Japan

Date Established: November, 1941

Capital: 23.519 billion yen

Business Activities: Banking and other financial services

Representative: Seishi Kitamura, President

 

1. Headquarters: 2-3-1 Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo

2. Date Founded: March, 2012 (became a foundation May 2012)

3. Endowment: 6 billion yen

4. Purpose: To contribute to the recovery of regions affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake through the provision of scholarships and grants for NPOs and social welfare corporations, as well as for recovery of industry and job creation.

5.Representatives:

- Chairman, Ken Kobayashi (President and CEO, Mitsubishi Corporation)

- Deputy Chairman, Yasuhito Hirota (Executive Vice President, Mitsubishi Corporation)

- Executive Director, Yoshiyuki Nojima (General Manager, CSR and Environmental Affairs Department, Mitsubishi Corporation)