What leaves Japan
this month.

Japan has no beef quota of its own. Its 200 tonnes were folded into a shared 65,005 tonne quota in 2020, where it competes first come first served with Brazil. That quota was triggered after 17 days in 2025 and exceeded on 6 January 2026, roughly 99 percent of it filled by Brazilian shipments. So the in quota rate of 4 percent belongs to the first week of January and the real rate is 26.4 percent. We price at 26.4 and tell you so, because a quote built on the lower number is a quote that changes after you accept it.

Between 3,000 and 5,500 head are certified in a year and under a tenth leaves Japan. Every shipment the Kobe Beef Marketing and Distribution Promotion Association publishes names S FOODS Inc as the exporter, and the consignments run from 7 to 145 kilograms, which tells you the shape of this trade: small, controlled and documented. Fewer than fifty restaurants and distributors in the United States may call it Kobe. Every real cut carries a ten digit carcass number you can check against the register, and anything offered without one is not Kobe whatever the invoice says. We would rather tell you that than sell you something we cannot evidence. Roy decided on 13 October 2026 that we apply for distributor approval, so this line is a question with a letter behind it rather than an idea.

Japan ships about 355 tonnes of water grown rhizome a year, for the whole country: Shizuoka 172.8, Nagano 157.2, and everywhere else under 21 between them. Summer carries disease loss in the beds and somebody pays for it, so we would rather have that conversation in April than surprise you in July. Watch the statistic too. The all wasabi series counts field grown and leaf and stem and runs to 2,017 tonnes, which is nearly six times larger and is not the product you are buying.

Hokkaido landed 303,200 tonnes to the end of November 2024, down 4 percent and the sixth consecutive year above 300,000. The United States is now Japan's largest market for frozen adductor and paid 7,657 yen a kilogram in the first half of 2026, up 29 percent. One thing to carry into any offer you receive: the customs duty on frozen adductor is Free, and the Section 301 forced labour action of 24 July 2026 lifts anything below 12.5 percent up to it, so a Japanese scallop lands at 12.5. The same box lands cheaper in Rotterdam, where the Japan to EU agreement puts it at zero. That rate has changed three times this year, so check it before every offer rather than every quarter.

The Kyoto first harvest auction reached 8,235 yen a kilogram in May 2025, up 170 percent in a year, against a previous record of 4,862 in 2016. National tencha production is 5,336 tonnes and it takes a hundred kilograms of leaf to make twenty of tencha. Two of the most credible Uji names in America have closed their wholesale books rather than raise prices again. This is why we talk about access before we talk about price, and why the answer comes from a conversation in Kyoto rather than from an email.

Japan grows about 100,000 tonnes of buri a year, with Kagoshima first at 46,217 tonnes, then Ehime and Oita. The cut is the thing that differs by market: American buyers take a larger fillet than Japanese or European ones, so tell us the destination before the specification. The customs duty on the fillet is Free and the Section 301 action takes it to 12.5 percent. A US importer is already running this exact lane from Kagoshima year round, which is the useful part: the tariff is a cost on this line, not a barrier.

Aomori grows 374,400 tonnes, which is 62 percent of Japan's crop, and about half of it is Fuji. The American route is the hard part and we will not pretend otherwise: it needs cold treatment and fumigation carried out in Japan under the supervision of a United States inspector, which in turn needs an agreement between the two governments to be in place. Japan sold 108 million dollars of apples in 2024 and effectively none of it to the United States. If you are buying for Europe or Asia this is a straightforward line. If you are buying for America, ask us the hard question first.

A federal importer basic permit, then label approval for every single label, then a route through a three tier system that is decided state by state. One detail decides the economics before any of that: sake is taxed as wine at 1.07 dollars a wine gallon, unless brewer's alcohol has been added, in which case it is taxed as a distilled spirit at 13.50 a proof gallon. More than twelve times, decided by one line on a brewing sheet. We ask the brewery before we talk about price. Japan exported 43.5 billion yen of sake in 2024 and the United States took 11.4 billion of it, up 26 percent, so the market is there. The licence is not, yet.