Japan to commence emergency butter imports from October

7 Responses to “Japan to commence emergency butter imports from October”

1. W. Anthony Malcolm on June 28th, 2008 8:59 am

   I used to teach in Morioka-shi, Iwate-ken for a spell and one of the students was a dairy farmer. This was about 3 years ago. During that time he told me that he had an oversupply of milk that on occasion he had to destroy because it just went bad sitting in tanks. No one would buy it. Finally he convinced his parents to use the excess milk to make cheese, butter, and other dairy products. Even after that effort he was still destroying some of the milk supply.

   That was 3 years ago. Do you think domestic milk supply has dropped so much that Japan can’t produce butter? What other factors have led to this overwhelmingly obvious decline in butter, particularly salted butter (maybe no salt)? I’ll read up on it, but it is startling to me since every other day I go to the market there is a new type of milk being rolled out, while always hearing that milk consumption is in decline across Japan.

   Is milk the main ingredient in butter? Sounds like a stupid question but I have to ask the most basic question first because the other ones I’ve been pondering lead to dead ends.

   Peace

2. Ken Worsley on June 28th, 2008 5:30 pm

   Milk is not only the main ingredient in butter production, but it’s also the main by-product. Skim milk, that is. Once the butter’s been made, there’s no real market for skim milk. It can be powdered and sold in that form, but apparently it’s more profitable for the dairy farmer to just sell the raw milk.

3. W. Anthony Malcolm on June 30th, 2008 6:15 am

   Can they ship the skim excess to country’s that might need it? Is there even an international market for powered skim milk? That Global Voices article was pretty informative. Thanks for the link.

   Peace

4. Alan on July 3rd, 2008 10:38 am

   You’re hinting at but skipping over the real problrm here, which is that Japan’s bureaucrats keep a stranglehold on these markets without really considering where the demand is.

5. Taintus on July 14th, 2008 8:24 pm

   Japanese government under Koizumi sold itself out to corporate interests both domestic and international in a gamble to ween itself from the rural base that had supported it since the end of the war. They may still succeed in this little coup, but when international supplies are as unstable as they have been domestic production gains more political traction, even in metropolitan areas. But, as Japan’s rural areas continue to die out (see Otaki, for example) one wonders where the nation will turn to if international food supplies continue to dwindle.

6. Ken Worsley on July 15th, 2008 12:11 am

   Japanese government under Koizumi sold itself out to corporate interests both domestic and international in a gamble to ween itself from the rural base that had supported it since the end of the war.

   Just to get a bit of context, specifically which bills passed during the Koizumi administration are being referred to here? And were those bills pure products of the Cabinet Office, or did they come from MOF, MAFF or METI draft proposals?

   I’d like us to discuss this further, but I’m wondering exactly what angle should be taken. I think it’s hard to lay all blame with Koizumi when the bureaucracy often has such a heavy hand in lawmaking.

7. Ken Worsley on July 15th, 2008 12:13 am

   Wayne:

   Sorry it’s taken me so long to get back to your question.

   Is there even an international market for powered skim milk?

   From what I understand, that market had previously been China. I don’t know why that market has shrunk, though my best guess is through increased domestic production. Hopefully someone can jump in and enlighten us.

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