A comparative advantage of US food products in Japan

The Japanese Market has become vital to the U.S. Economy. Japan is the number one export market for the United States. In 1993, Japan accounted for 37.6 percent of the total growth in U.S. value-added exports.         U.S. food products, in particular, are a huge market in Japan. American agricultural exports to Japan in 1993 were $8.7 billion. About one-third of Japanese agricultural imports come from the United States. However, there is sometimes a mixed reception in …

…accessible to exporters.         Exports of intermediate food products from the United States are a small percentage of total U.S. agricultural exports to Japan. However, there are many areas within the Japanese food processing sector where U.S. exporters could be competitive, given U.S. processing technology and the ability to supply products with uniform size, color and texture. An example is the bakery/confection industry which uses large amounts of semi-processed fruits and nuts.