Food Valley attracts first Japanese food company

Food Valley is the working home of around 10,000 people active in sciences, technological development and related business, who are based at over 70 agro food companies and research institutes, including Wageningen University.

Japanese marine products company Nippon Suisan Kaisha announced the establishment of the Nissui Europe satellite laboratory this month, which aims to help the company understand the preferences of the European consumer and develop products to meet them.

Nippon Suisan Kaisha has had a presence in Europe since 1988.

Nippon Suisan Europe's headquarters are located near Amsterdam, and the company also has subsidiaries in Spain and Denmark.

But Yasu Ishikawa, managing director of Nippon Suisan Europe, told FoodNavigator.com that until now the company's activities have centred around distribution of imported marine products.

While the company has experience in food manufacturing in Japan, Asia, and North and South America, it does not yet have parallel experience in Europe.

"The intention is to establish a processing facility here, as we have access to resources from all over the world," he said.

"What we need is to add value, this is the long-term intention."

To that end, he said it is very important to have an R&D function in Europe.

The decision to establish this in Food Valley was due to the high number of research institutions in the area.

"Food Valley is like Silicon Valley in the US," said Ishikawa.

"A year ago we started to contact institutes and networks, and found that there was interest in working with us."

Ard Crebas, project manager, foreign investments for Development Agency East Netherlands told Food Navigator.com that interest in Food Valley stems from the combination of research institutes and companies that could be partners.

He expects more Japanese companies to set up shop in the Valley.

Ishikawa said that publicity in Japan about Food Valley has generated interest in the food industry.

They want to learn how to establish themselves in Europe or structure collaborations with industry, academia and governments.

"Food Valley is an advanced example of such collaboration."

While Fiji Film is understood to have a presence in Food Valley, this is related to packaging rather than foodstuffs directly.

As for Nippon Suisan, for now it does not have its own lab in the valley.

Rather, its office is staffed by two researchers who coordinate between the central laboratory in Japan and the Food Valley institutes.

Ishikawa hopes that the company's "big wish" to have its own laboratory in Food Valley will become a reality within a few years.

He confirmed that the intention is to grow the European side of the business, which currently reports annual sales of around €300m. Annual turnover for the global group is around US$4.5bn, but the European sales are not consolidated in this since Nippon Suisan is not the majority shareholder of the European companies.

Ishikawa said that today's consumers are interested in three things: convenience, health and traceability.

While he was not able to go into details, he said that one part of the plan is to work in making the company's processed food offerings healthier and easier to prepare.

Nippon Suisan claims to be Japan's largest supplier of omega-3 fish oils DHA and EPA.