Cultivation Management

Procuring raw materials from company-managed farms

Neighborhood farmers gather as the morning sun illuminates their farms. They then begin to skillfully and carefully pick plump soybean pods.
This is the Xinagya Xinlou Farm in Zhangpu County, Zhangzhou, which neighbors Xiamen City, Fujian Province, China. When the inspection tour visited the farm in June 2008, it was harvest time for the spring crop and the farmers were picking soybeans every day.
Eiichiro Koyama, president of Xiamen Ajinomoto Life Ideal Foods Co., Ltd. (ALI), looked upon the soybean field with pride as he declared, “This is the biggest crop we have ever had.” A joint venture between FFA, the Japanese importer Life Foods Co., Ltd., and Xiamen Ideal Group Corp., Ltd., which is a leading company in China, ALI is a producer and marketer of frozen vegetables and vegetable-material products. It mainly supplies frozen soybeans, kidney beans, broccoli, leaks, carrots, mushrooms, and other frozen vegetables for shipment to Japan.
Company-managed farms of Ajinomoto are farms where FFA selects the fields and manages the entire growing process from planting through harvesting based on its own cultivation standards. Xiamen Hualeng Agricultural Development Corp., Ltd., a member of the Xiamen Ideal Group, conducts the actual farm management, which is guided and supervised by FFA through seconded employees sent to ALI. There are 54 comapny-managed farms in and around Xiamen with a total area of 660 hectares.

Stakeholders' opinions Ms. Tatsumi I could see that the company is making a great effort to earn trust in its comapny-managed farms, despite risks in the balance of supply and demand caused by the weather and other factors.

Strict control of agricultural chemicals and traceability

According to ALI's vice president Ryosuke Shimizu, “While costs are necessarily higher at our comapny-managed farms compared to common contract farms, they enable highly safe cultivation management, including strict use of agricultural chemicals.” In addition, ALI stations agricultural managers at each farm.
At Xinagya Xinlou Farm, agricultural managers go around the farm every day to check the status of crop growth and any emergence of pests or diseases, all of which is recorded in cultivation control reports. In the event pests are discovered and the agricultural managers deem the application of agricultural chemicals as necessary, a request for the type and quantity of chemicals is sent to the headquarters of Xiamen Hualeng Agricultural Development. Agricultural chemicals are only sprayed, in appropriate quantities at the proper time, after approval is obtained from the headquarters. The kinds of agricultural chemicals used are regulated by standards set in both Japan and China, as well as in even stricter guidelines established internally by FFA. Agricultural chemicals are also strictly controlled with regards to quality and storage, and are diluted and sprayed in accordance with agricultural chemical work regulations. Furthermore, the kinds and quantities of chemicals sprayed are all recorded in cultivation control reports. This information is entered into computers by ALI and becomes important data for traceability purposes.
As a matter of course, the company prohibits the spraying of agricultural chemicals just before harvest. In addition, samples are taken and tested by ALI for residual agricultural chemicals. If the samples pass this testing, a Raw Material Harvest Authorization is issued and the crop can finally be harvested.

Comment

Motoi Sakurai

President, Sakurai Agricultural Consult Co., Ltd.

Under contract with ALI, we provide cultivation guidance at farms. Traditionally, intuition and experience were valued in China regarding the use of agricultural chemicals, which were not always used based on scientific data. We have been instructing the farmers to change their conventional methods, showing them how to obtain the same results with minimal use of agricultural chemicals and only small amounts of fertilizer, based on the group's internal guidelines. Established within the Ajinomoto Group for the purpose of implementing environmentally friendly cultivation methods, these internal guidelines are even stricter than those set by Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare in its Positive List System for restricting agricultural chemical residues in foods.