Japanese strawberries: off the menu thanks to Typhoon Hagibis?

The typhoons Hagibis and Faxai decimated Japanese farms, wiping out crops, ruining land and equipment and causing damage worth over US$2 billion

Unions fear that on top of this, ‘invisible damage’ may be the last straw for an ageing workforce already under pressure from cheaper foreign imports

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Japan’s strawberry crops have been devastated by recent typhoons. Photo: SCMP

Published: 5:11pm, 6 Nov 2019Updated: 11:07pm, 6 Nov 2019

From the strawberry farms of Tochigi to the rice paddies of Chiba, the livestock farms of Gunma and the apple orchards of Aomori, the damage to Japan caused by two major typhoons this autumn has been devastating.

In many places, nearly one month after super typhoon Hagibis became the largest storm to sweep across Japan in 60 years, farmers are still attempting to tally the exact cost in terms of lost crops and livestock as well as damage to agricultural equipment and regional infrastructure critical to the industry, such as dams and irrigation channels.

In its latest estimate of the financial hit that the industry has taken, Japan’s ministry of agriculture, forestry and fisheries said on Tuesday that the nation’s farmers had lost more than 253 billion yen (US$2.32 billion). Those figures are combined estimated losses as a result of Hagibis, which struck central Japan on October 12 and swept across eastern regions of the country over the following 24 hours, and typhoon Faxai, which made landfall on September 9 and followed a similar path.

“We have 4,000 member farmers across Japan and, according to the latest information that we have been able to gather, at least 100 farms were completely destroyed in Hagibis alone,” said Takashi Koiso, a spokesman for the Japan Pork Producers’ Association.

“We still do not have a firm figure for the number of pigs that were lost, but it will undoubtedly be devastating for the industry,” he said.

Japan’s pig farms have been devastated by recent typhoons. Photo: EPA

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