Chinese, Italian is passe, now Taste Japan

Japanese ministry ties up with Godrej Nature's Basket to promote food brands in India

Japan is trying hard to make itself palatable to Indians, with its ministry of agriculture, forestry and fisheries (MAFF) launching a new initiative called Taste Japan.

The ministry has exclusively tied up with Godrej Nature’s Basket, a gourmet retail chain in India, to make authentic beverages, snacks, pickles, sauces and sweets available in five stores across Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad. Taste Japan is targeted to getting Japanese companies look beyond Japan and export their exclusive food brands to other countries.

While Japanese sushi, fishes, noodles, soy sauce, pickles and wasabi attract millions of consumers worldwide, their journey in India has been quite a low profile one as compared to the US, Europe and South East Asian markets, primarily because of less exposure to Japanese culture, expensive pricing, high import duties, labelling in local language and low promotion of the cuisine.

Mohit Khattar, MD and CEO of Godrej Nature’s Basket, said, “Out of the total foreign cuisine market in India, Japan would just be 5 per cent, but nonetheless, the number of Japanese food lovers is increasing fast. We just had five Japanese restaurants four years ago, today we have about 20 of them.”

While Japanese food was a delicacy in a few high-end restaurants in India until sometime back, today one can easily find local street shops, take away joints and kiosks serving Japanese dishes tweaked with Indian flavour to suite local palate. The new strategy of the government of Japan is to actively push their products in Indian kitchens to become a part of their routine cooking. Till now, the buyers were just from a few restaurants, retailers and high-end consumers who are well travelled and have developed taste for new cuisines.

Khattar says, “Japanese platter is close to Indian palate. Our sales show that people who have tried it have got hooked. Japanese food is healthy, non-fatty, hygienic and aesthetic too. As healthy foods are catching on big time in India, we have a very strong business proposition to promote it.”

Godrej Nature’s Basket is expecting about 25 per cent growth in Japanese cuisine in the next five years.

Maidoindia, a private Indian company which has exclusive rights to import Japanese food products, says that there are 30-odd Japanese food products which are already in India. With the launch of 30 more this year, the government of Japan is trying to make it a popular cuisine among Indian homes. Its director, Anuj Jodhani said, “Earlier challenges were expensive pricing, labeling in Japanese language and a lot of myths attached to it. The Japanese government is trying to moderate the taste and price of products better suited to Indian markets. We will soon come out with products that have Indian flavour.” For instance, a one litre pack of Japanese apple juice would cost Rs 900 as against an Indian brand which will come at Rs 60-80. The government has brought the price down to Rs 200 - Rs 1500.

But how will people come to know about these brands? The government of Japan will be doing a lot of ground activation and sampling to create interest among consumers. While it is organising a Japan Street Fair from March 16-18 in Mumbai’s Phoenix Mall, it would also be doing a lot of in-store promotion, merchandising, free sampling, pamphlet distribution and social media, sending text messages and inviting Japanese chefs to stores to educate about Japanese cooking.

Even the distribution and sales force has been activated for the purpose. Harshita Gandhi, director, Tree of Life Pvt. Ltd (a distributor) says, “We now have very high targets of selling about 10,000 units every month.”