Since the 1990’s, while the actors of neoliberalism including the WTO are rising on the global scale, Japanese agriculture has been restructured and the number of crops which can support the farmers’ agricultural business has been decreasing. In this recent restructuring of Japanese agriculture, the “local brands” which are the labeled regional specialty food products (SFPs) are expected to contribute to the development of the rural districts. These brands, therefore, are drawing more and more attention from academics and also other fields. However, these products do not necessarily bring profits to the rural districts, and they have rather the potential to cause some conflicts. To understand how they affect the development of the production areas, it is important to consider how the actors in the food chains are linked and how the product qualities are constructed between the actors.
Based on the above described facts, in order to verify the “local brands” scheme, I would like to discuss the mango production areas in Saito City, Miyazaki, as an example. Mangos, because they are tropical fruits, are produced in only a few areas in Japan with a great amount of investment. Domestic mangos are mainly used as luxury gifts in the domestic market. They used to have the characteristic of niche crops, but recently their market has been expanded and their prices have been increasing.
What has been made clear, through this research, is that the development factors of the production areas are: (1) the adoption of mangos as new crops by the farmers who were struggling with financial difficulties; (2) the promotion of the production areas by the prefectural governments and JA (Japan Agricultural Cooperatives), and the construction of a brand promotion system by cooperation between production and distribution divisions and (3) the winning of media attention. However, on the other hand, for the farmers’ agricultural business, there were problems such as: (1) development of the production areas was accompanied by the stratification of farmers; and (2) destabilization of the business of the farmers excluded from the “local brands.”
The production areas of the niche crops are under a changeable economic system and their success is accidental and unsure. However, it is valuable to discuss how alternatives in the food network, such as the example case above, will contribute to the development of the production areas.
