At a conference on July 30, Naoko Tahara, Agricultural Attach\u00e9 at the Consulate-General of Japan in Ho Chi Minh City, described Japanese demand for Vietnamese agricultural products that meet environmental and green standards as having 'very great potential.' Behind this lies the fact that in 2025 Vietnam rose from sixth to fourth place as a supplier of agricultural, forestry and fishery products and food to Japan. For Japanese food manufacturers and trading houses, this move prompts a rethink of sourcing design around 'from which production area, and with what certification, do we buy.' This article lays out concretely what is growing and what the next conditions will be.<\/p>\n
Tahara's remarks are not abstract rhetoric but backed by recent import results. In JETRO's compilation of Japan's 2025 imports of agricultural, forestry and fishery products and food, the top suppliers were, in order, the United States (\u00a52.3481 trillion), China (\u00a51.8065 trillion), Thailand (\u00a5819.7 billion), Vietnam (\u00a5771.2 billion) and Canada (\u00a5764.9 billion). Against the backdrop of a sharp rise in forestry products, Vietnam jumped from sixth place the previous year straight to fourth.<\/p>\n
The driver was forestry products such as timber, with imports of \u00a5374.4 billion, up 24.7% year on year. Coffee beans too, while flat in volume, grew in value by about 50% from the previous year. Shrimp is also moving as a mainstay item for Japan. The timber, coffee and shrimp that Tahara cited are all 'items actually being bought' with figures to back them up. The Japanese market, with a population of over 100 million, has deep demand for high-quality food \u2014 a structure that serves as a receiving base for Vietnamese products.<\/p>\n
What Tahara stressed alongside demand was the high level that Japanese consumers require. Quality, food safety, traceability and stable sourcing \u2014 on top of these four points, environmental protection and climate-change response are becoming 'factors that decide purchases.' Import value is indeed rising, but within it the conditions that determine which production areas are chosen are being swapped out \u2014 that is the key point.<\/p>\n
In Japanese practice, this is nothing new. Major food manufacturers have long set out basic 'green procurement' policies and have made a traceability system from raw material through production and shipment a precondition of doing business. In other words, the wall for Vietnamese products is neither tariffs nor price, but has shifted to 'can you demonstrate the environment and the history in documents and on the ground.' Conversely, a production area that has built up the systems to prove this can step out of price competition and move closer to long-term contracts.<\/p>\n