in English Archive

Most of us have had experience of losing a bottle cap. But a new innovation in Japan means you don’t have to worry about this any more. JR East Water Business Co., Ltd.,(JREWB) a subsidiary of East Japan Railway Company, will renew their natural mineral water brand “From AQUA” this March. This will include an innovated screw cap for PET bottles and will be sold at JPY 110 for 500 ml and JPY 100 for 280 ml from the company’s vending machines and from their own kiosks at East JR stations.

The new cap has been developed by Nihon Crown Cork Co., Ltd, a subsidiary of Toyo Seikan Ltd. It has a ”tab and hinge,” hinge-joined cap shell, and tamper evident band. When the cap is opened, the tab can be easily hooked over the thread of the screw, and it clicks when hooked. There is no need to have to hold the cap and there is no chance the cap will be lost. Targeting female drinkers, JREWB expects the new cap can offer consumers a more convenient drinking experience.

After the announcement this week of radioactive contamination in Japan’s tap water, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) has requested beverage companies who are members of the Japan Soft Drinks Association to increase their production and import of mineral water.

However, the ongoing temporary power cuts have been severely disrupting production. Working around this Japan’s beverage companies are already at full stretch, including shifting their production to the areas in western Japan unaffected by the crisis. And in addition to the problems with supply of caps, containers and labels as we reported yesterday, supply of raw materials such plastic resins have also been affected, making it a challenge for producers to respond to MAFF’s request.

We and others in the industry therefore continue to urge consumers not to make unnecessary purchases or to hoard stocks of mineral water at this time.

After Japan’s earthquake and tsunami on 11th March there was significant disruption to the beverages industry in the affected regions of the country. Some of the companies and areas affected have included:

· Kirin Beer’s beer storage tanks and factory buildings in Sendai – some stock destroyed
· Damage to Asahi and Sapporo’s factories in the north and east of Japan – both from earthquake damage and from resultant ground liquefaction nearer Tokyo
· Yakult’s Fukushima and Iwate factories suffered damage halting supply of Yakult Calorie Half, Yakult SHEs, Yakult 300V and Yakult Genki Yogurt products
· Morinaga Dairies Sendai factory – building and equipment affected
· Otsuka Pharamceutical Hanamaki factory producing nutrition products
· Nihon Kami Pack – damage to buildings and production facilities and the collapse of stock in its automatic warehouse
· Coca Cola Central Japan – damage to its automatic warehouse system and stock
· Hokuetsu Package in Ibaragi, which makes packaging for milk suffered serious damage to its factory. (50% of Japan’s production of paper cartons is in Ibaragi which was an area badly affected)
· Toyo Seikan Group, one of Japan’s largest soft drink and beer packaging suppliers has suffered damage to a number of factories including its Kanto and Tohoku PET bottling, and to Japan Crown Cork in Ibaragi which produces 30-40% of Japan’s PET bottle caps
· Daiwa Seikan, another major can and bottle packaging supplier has suffered damage to production facilities, and plant shutdowns due to fallen and damaged stock of secondary materials

Much of the most serious impact however has been to logistics and distribution, in particular regarding availability of fuel. And power cuts have necessitated the disruption of production affecting production efficiency and output. Companies with factories in the west side of Japan have been shifting production there where possible and necessary. However, as of 24th March we are already seeing production resuming at some of the damaged and disrupted facilities.

In addition, both the major and smaller beverage and food companies have been quick to make significant product and financial donations to the relief effort. Some, such as Cheerio Corporation, have been able to create their own new and direct distribution routes to the disaster areas.

We will bring you more details of the effects of the Japan earthquake on the beverage industry and market as they emerge.

East Japan is still is rocking. And now, Japan faces a new nuclear panic. A couple of days ago the Japanese government disclosed that some vegetables and raw milk has been contaminated with radioactivity. Today, many water supply offices have revealed that tap water is also contaminated with radioactivity. The Tokyo water supply office advised it is safe for adults but babies and young children should not drink it. I think this will lead to further panic in Tokyo! Last week, consumers had to line up to buy gasoline. This week the lines are in supermarkets to buy bottled water.

At this time the beverage industry, including the mineral water industry, is facing a big challenge as the major container suppliers, especially cap suppliers, have been affected by the earthquake, even though most of the filling factories escaped significant problems. In addition eastern Japan is subject to daily power cuts every 3 or 6 hours which is affecting factory efficiency and output. As a result there is a real challenge to supply beverage products to consumers. Nobody knows when this nuclear crisis will finish or whether it will become even more serious.

So here is my appeal to the beverage industry across the world!! Would you please consider donating water to Japan? Please contact your nearest Japanese embassy, or your government to find out how you can most effectively do this.

Thank you

現在，私は果汁関係の取材のために海外へ出かけています。現在，チリの首都・サンチアゴに滞在しております。

時々・・・になりますが，アップデート情報を掲載致します。是非，TwitterやFacebookをご覧下さいませ。そして，お気軽にお友達登録をお願いいたします。飲料が大好きな方であれば，飲料業界人であるかどうかは問いません。Facebookでは，Yoshihiko Haniで検索してみて下さい。

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Dear Readers,

I am in Santiago Chile, really hot summer! I will put update on my Twitter and / or facebook. Please follow me, and give me any comments.

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