A fat little red pig standing on a mountain peak is part of the newest campaign to promote Canadian pork in Japan.
It is an effort to differentiate and promote Canadian pork, which in the past has been mislabeled in Japan as domestic or American meat.
With a high standard of living and expensive tastes, most of the world is at Japan’s doorstep trying to sell pork.
“They are a very demanding market. They can get away with it because they pay the highest prices,” said Trevor Sears, a senior trader with Maple Leaf Foods.
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Japan produces slightly more than half of its own pork and must import the rest. Most imports came from Taiwan until foot-and-mouth disease decimated the industry there. Canada, Denmark and the United States quickly filled the gap, Sears told the Alberta Pork Producers annual meeting in Calgary.
Canada provides 17 percent of Japan’s imported pork. Last year about 191,900 tonnes of mostly bellies, tenderloins, offals and hams were shipped in the form of fresh, chilled and frozen product.
Yet consumer surveys revealed that awareness of Canadian pork is low among Japanese consumers. Part of this became evident when a meat scandal was uncovered. Imported meat was labelled as domestic and sold for a higher price.
“Our pork was mostly being sold as Japanese domestic pork or U.S. pork. It was a real wake-up call for us as an industry,” Sears said.
Canada hired a Japanese advertising firm to emphasize not only the quality but the healthful benefits of Canadian pork.
This is part of a larger food export program supported by government and industry to sell Canada as a bountiful food basket for the world, emphasizing food safety, freshness and proximity to markets. Ads showing pristine environments of mountains, amber fields of grain and clean waterfalls are being developed to promote Canadian pork.
Surveys said many Japanese thought Canada was too cold to produce pork. The ads suggest cold winters are beneficial to healthy meat produced from animals fed grain harvested in the fall and watered by spring runoff from the Rockies. In addition, the quality assurance program is emphasized to prove the animals are healthy and well tended.
Each package of pork and the advertising will include a Canadian logo featuring a red pig with a maple leaf on its side standing on a mountain range.
