RE:OT…..maybe…..just a little…..So it took the thought of paying $12 for a bag of chips to change my focus on ERSF. Up to that point I didn’t think much about ERSF other than “I hope they do well” and that somehow it benefits NSP.
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Much like other posts on Thursday I had intended to comment about NSP entering a
Distribution Agreement with First Step Japan for CBD products. Not a lot of info available publicly about FSJ but obviously NSP management privy to more detailed information to substantiate the signing of a distribution agreement. Not a lot of details about the distribution agreement itself and understandably I doubt the details will ever be made public. Lots of interesting questions about both FSJ & the distribution agreement come to mind but my focus was too narrow.
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Last Spring NSP was
invited by the B.C. Ministry of International Trade to participate in an international trade mission lead by Premier Christy Clark. One of the stops was Japan. Back then NSP believed it presented significant potential (Note 1) as did Hemp Foods Australia's chief executive officer Paul Benhaim. He met with the First Lady of Japan, Akie Abe, (who has
long been keen on hemp) at the inaugural
Kyoto Hemp Forum and Elixinol (CBD Hemp Oil) was also
sold to the First Lady for use by her husband, Shinzo Abe,
the Prime Minister. Last summer was not the time for NSP to be trying to expand their exporting territory.
Fast forward to February 2017 when NSP announced that it had
negotiated an exclusive sales agreement for Japan with an established manufacturer of exceptional quality CBD capsules. A day later NSP announced its wholly owned U.S. subsidiary has signed an exclusive sales agreement with a leading CBD manufacturer for a complete suite of CBD formulated products. CEO Dave Eto comments, "
Our trip to FoodEx in Tokyo in March 2017 exceeded our expectations. We knew from our research that the Japanese consumer has an advanced and acute knowledge of CBD products given their Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, is currently treating his colitis with a CBD product. The Japanese government's regulatory environment, while stringent and disciplined, has provided us with the ability to import Hemp products containing CBD for Japanese consumers. The response from FoodEx delegates looking for CBD products was amazing as they want to capitalize on this new trend. Our relationship with FSJ represents a considerable amount of work and effort to secure such an excellent "access to market strategy" and we are very excited to announce our relationship and begin delivering our products to them." *****
Paul Benhaim & Hemp Foods Australia may have been in the early days of selling CBD Hemp Oil drops, hemp protein and hulled hemp seeds in Japan. Benhaim in July 2016 was “
predicting a 400 per cent growth in the next year, even though it is still illegal to sell hemp products for human consumption” in Australia and New Zealand.
That is soon about to change and with it, consumption in Australia and New Zealand may increase. He also said in July 2016 “
they needed more farmers in Australia to start growing hemp to help it meet the growing demand.” The opportunity for NSP is still huge.
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So the Japanese people are well aware of CBD’s as noted earlier. They also consume a lot of fish oils because they are high in essential fatty acids, omega-3 and omega-6. Since the
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster many Japanese have been looking for alternatives to potentially contaminated fish oils.
On Thursday there was some concern on the SH board regarding the CBD’s NSP not being its own product. Well that will change when Health Canada gets “its head out of it’s …..” but….
we will have to wait.
In the interim NSP providing a dozen or so CBD products as an alternative to just CBD hemp oil to a population of 130,000,000 Japanese people sounds good to me.
The CBD products that NSP has introduced to Japan are all under the
NATERA® international brand name (thanks Dave Eto) which will lead to quicker, better recognition of the Natera branded Hulled Hemp Seeds and Protein Powder.
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I could have spent time on FSJ & the Distribution Agreement but I am real glad that the “$12 bag of potato chips” made me step back and look at the bigger picture. The News Release may talk about FSJ and the Distribution Agreement but the real news is the opportunity that it presents to NSP in Japan and the future growth of NSP. IMO another Good win ;)
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“Living in the sunshine”
Always DYODD
DKM
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Note 1:
Naturally Splendid Returns From Premier's Trade Mission - June 9, 2016
…….The Asian region remains of high interest for Naturally Splendid in regards to expanding our exporting territory. The opportunity to meet key contacts in Japan has accelerated the exporting opportunities there.
Japan has a population nearing 130,000,000. In comparison, South Korea has a population of approximately 50,000,000. Naturally Splendid VP of Operations Bryan Carson states, "We see many similar signals coming from Japan that we observed in South Korea when we initially launched there. With an increased population base comes the potential to create significant exporting opportunities". dontknowmuch wrote: When I read the Feb 21
st NR that NSP would “
Present CBD Product Line in Japan” I did think it was interesting that “Naturally Splendid will be presenting with Eat Real Snack Foods (ERSF) at JAPAN FOODEX who are participating as Canadian Delegates in the Canadian Pavilion.”
That’s as far as my thought process went that day in regard to ERSF taking aim at Japan for a product launch. I was of course more interested in NSP & CBD’s in Japan.
The next time I thought/posted about ERSF and Japan was
March 28th when I suggested
“I would think that any success that ERSF has in Japan will lead to additional product volume being added to the packaging line in the Pitt Meadows warehouse at least initially if not long term.” At this point I still wasn’t thinking about why ERSF picked Japan.
It wasn’t until this morning when the article below caught my eye that I started thinking more about ERSF and Japan. I had a quick look at the products on the
Calbee Inc. &
Koike-ya Inc. &
Eat Real Snack Foods websites and it makes a lot more sense to me.
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My flashback 32 years – Just as the article below suggests that the Japanese love their potato chips I loved my Coke Classic and was buying up all I could find when Coke introduced New Coke. These days I don’t drink any type of Coke! *****
“Living in the sunshine”
Always DYODD
DKM
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The Great Japan Potato-Chip Crisis: Panic Buying, $12 Bags - 13 April 2017 Demand for potato chips has surged in Japan this week, with products on offer for 6 times their retail price online after Japanese snack company Calbee Inc. halted the sale of some of its most popular chip brands.
Calbee’s pizza-flavored chips were going for about
1,250 yen ($12) on Yahoo Japan Corp.’s auction website Friday. One bag usually sells for less than 200 yen. Photos of near-empty shelves at their local supermarkets were trending on Twitter.
The crunch came after Calbee warned on Monday that it will temporarily halt the sale of 15 types of potato chips due to a bad crop in Hokkaido, a key potato-producing region. The northern island was hit by a record number of typhoons last year. Calbee, which has a market value of 507.9 billion yen and is 20 percent-owned by PepsiCo Inc., has a 73 percent market share of potato chips.
Potato chips are a big deal in Japan, a country also known for its senbei rice crackers and Pocky sticks. Calbee’s potato-snack products were the most and second-most popular snacks in a TV Asahi poll of 10,000 people and 13 confectionery makers last year, and the subject of a primetime show that lasted more than two hours. While the focus has been on potato chips following Calbee’s announcement, the shortage may spread to fast-food chains and restaurants that rely on spuds for their dishes in what appears to be shaping up to be the nation’s
“Potato Crisis,” according to the Nikkei newspaper.
“We’re doing everything we can to resume sales again,” said Rie Makuuchi, a spokeswoman for Tokyo-based Calbee. She said the company will consider using more imported potatoes from the U.S. and ask potato farmers in the southern island of Kyushu to harvest their crop earlier than scheduled. She also cited regulatory hurdles, which limit the amount of imported potatoes that can be used in products, as partly responsible for the shortage.
It’s not the first time Japan’s seen a shortage of food staples -- a declining number of dairy farmers and lack of imports due to high tariffs has led to butter shortages in the past, accompanied by exhaustive media coverage.
Smaller potato-chip rival Koike-ya Inc. has also halted the sale of 9 snack products. The company only uses domestic potatoes and therefore won’t rely on imports, according to spokesman Kazuya Obata. Both Koike-ya and Calbee said they aren’t sure when sales will resume.
Twitter users sent encouraging tweets to Calbee, which apologized for the crunch via its official Twitter account. If nothing else, the shortage appeared to remind people how much they liked their potato chips.
“I realized how addicted I was to potato chips after the halt,” one person tweeted. “I’ll be waiting for sales to resume. Hang in there!”