Winter Fancy Food Show 2010

35th Winter Fancy Food Show was held from January 17 to 19. Just like the last year, Shizuoka prefecture had a booth, and my company helped the booth to promote Shizuoka's most famous product - TEA. Compared to the last year, there were so many attendees from the first day. Some exhibitors said hopefully "it might be a sign of an economic upturn."

My brother came to the show from Japan to help me. There is nothing he doesn't know about our teas because he is the person making the teas with my father. Because he doesn't speak any English, only the problem was interpretation... my English!
We, Sugimoto America, believe the product safety is one of the most important as a company in the food industry. From this perspective, my brother's visit had great significance; my brother could have face-to-face conversation with customers and established personal relationship with them. We want our customers to know who makes our teas and how passionate we are.

Shizuoka is also famous as the catch of bonito"Katsuo," and the company called Shin-Marusho (visit their Japanese website?) also joined to the booth. Have you ever heard "Dashi?" Dashi is soup stock made by shaved dried bonito and is used for almost all Japanese cuisine. The person came from Shin-Marusho provided 2 kinds of Dashi soup and did some research about customers' preference. He said "contrary to my expectation, American preference is similar to Japanese. American people already have acquired taste of Dashi." Just like Sushi got popular in the U.S., there are many Japanese foods getting popular in the U.S. now. Green tea is one of them. Dashi might be the next one?