During Asia’s largest food show at Chiba, Japan last year, Canadian government officials scouting for evidence of success in branding Canadian food products as wholesome, safe and the best around, had some shocks.
Japanese pasta importers laughed at the suggestion they consider importing Canadian product. Japanese consumers know that Italy makes the best pasta, even if it is often made from Canadian durum.
A Japanese pork producer said that products containing Danish pork are labelled Danish because consumers think it is the best. Canadian pork is simply mixed in “made in Japan” products and not identified because it is not seen as a marketing strength.
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But it wasn’t all bad news. The Canada brand works for at least one product in the lucrative Japanese market.
“The only Canadian product that seems to be ‘top of the mind’ for Japanese consumers is maple syrup,” said a report on the Foodex 2003 show that was the focus of a major government effort to assess its branding campaign.
The report was obtained from Agriculture Canada files by Ottawa researcher Ken Rubin using access to information legislation.
The results challenge the effectiveness of one of the government’s key food marketing strategies under the agricultural policy framework – branding Canada as a provider of wholesome, safe, traceable food produced in environmentally sustainable ways.
The problem, said the report, is that everyone else is doing the same. Consumers, buyers and importers are being bombarded by similar messages from Canada’s competitors.
“A generic Canada Brand message based on safety and quality will not be sufficient for the Japanese market,” said the report. “Canada’s major competitors are also using these branding messages.”
An informal survey of which country Japanese buyers thought the best country to buy product from held little good news for Canada.
In the months before BSE was discovered in Canada, the preferred countries of origin for beef were the United States and Australia. China was the preferred producer of corn and, except for bagel production, the preferred wheat came from Australia.
The research did see some opportunities for niche marketing in Japan. GMO-free products and Canadian ice wine could find a market.
“The strong response to the Canadian exhibitor’s non-GMO soybeans may point to an opportunity to brand non-GMO products from Canada,” said the report. “Whether the soybeans were non-GMO was a bigger factor than pricing.”
