News Releases
Mar 14,2025
Agreement Ceremony with Oita Prefecture and Kunitachi City on March 13
Opening of 18 hectares of Japanese pear cultivation area, one of the largest in Japan,
aiming to increase the scale and efficiency of fruit tree production
Farmind Corporation (Headquarters: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO: Tatsuo Horiuchi; hereafter, “Farmind”), aims to increase food self-sufficiency by building an agricultural business model that can efficiently and sustainably produce high-quality fresh produce and revitalizing domestic agriculture.
Based on this, we will establish “Farmind Oita Farm Corporation” (hereafter, Farmind Oita) in April 2024 and enter into Japanese pears full-scale production in Kunisaki City, Japan. The project will start in April 2026, and the cultivation area will be expanded to 18 hectares by February 2033. This entry is based on the “Horticulture Complexation Plan” for the systematic development of large-scale horticulture complexes promoted by Oita Prefecture.
President and CEO, Tatsuo Horiuchi and Farmind Oita Representative Ryuichi Yoshioka attended the entry agreement signing ceremony with Kunisaki City held at the Oita Prefectural Government Office on Thursday, March 13, 2025. They talked about the company's efforts to expand fruit tree production and further development of the prefecture's agriculture industry to Oita Prefectural Governor Junichiro Sato and Kunisaki City Mayor Tokuji Matsui.
Although the demand for domestically produced fruit is increasing due to the development of superior varieties and the prices are on the rise, the domestic cultivation area is decreasing year by year due to the fewer new enterers and the aging of farmers. To break through this environment and balance supply and demand, we are expanding our domestic fruit tree production business. In Oita Prefecture, popular varieties such as Kosui and Hosui will be grown on a large scale, aiming for a stable supply.
The “Joint V-shape” is a new joint tree form in which the main branches on the flat shelf are lowered to a height of 0.7m to 0.8m for the slant of side branches. This shape can achieve earlier and higher yield, enable a more comfortable working posture and easy for machinery. By incorporating labor-saving cultivation, we hope to build a next generation agricultural model in which the farming environment will be improved and there’s no restriction of age or gender and contribute to the prefecture employment diversity.
Farmind Oita is the second location of pear-production in Furmind Group, following Furmind Ibaraki Farm Corporation. Relay of varieties and production areas on large scale enable a stable supply of pears.
We hope to contribute to local JA and producers in the prefecture with a comprehensive fresh produce distribution platform which has a nationwide cold chain and information network. Utilizing a distribution network centered on 14 fruit and vegetable centers nationwide, we deliver fruits and vegetables produced in the prefecture from the production areas to consumption areas while maintaining freshness and quality. In combination with the Farmind logistics network, small-lot transportation is also possible, leading to logistics construction and cost reductions. Furthermore, we will expand our comprehensive fresh produce distribution platform in the future by collaborating with the JA Group, including the National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations, with which we have a capital and business alliance.
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