Hi everyone:
On Oct. 8 I am going to Japan to promote barley with Alberta Barley Vice-Chairman Trevor Petersen. This is a great opportunity to see what kinds of products are available in the Japanese market that might be enjoyed here at home or to develop export prospects for Alberta barley in Japan. Our trip will start at the Health Food Ingredient show then moving on to food opportunities for barley.
I am really looking forward to this trip because, similar to Canadians, the Japanese are looking at high beta-glucan food barley as an excellent addition to their diet. Trevor and I are looking forward to telling them our Alberta story. Earlier this summer a contingent of Japanese food writers came to Canada to experience our fantastic Alberta beef (finished on a diet of barley) with its wonderful marbling, and nice white fat. They also toured the Petersen family farm to see barley growing and I demonstrated barley risotto and a rustic barley saskatoon tart for a follow-up dinner.
The event was so successful, Alberta Barley was invited back to Japan to meet with their media.
Japan is currently our number one export market for barley and building and maintaining that relationship is a high priority to keep those markets growing. During the visit, we will be looking at more opportunities for barley export markets, and demonstrating more delicious barley recipes.
We have had a number of recipes translated into Japanese and will be demonstrating a couple of these to the food media, as well as posting them on GoBarley.com. And I will be tweeting while I’m away – so keep an eye out for our exciting Japanese updates.