Half Of Japan's Bean Sprout Growers Stop Operations

Bean sprouts, which are known for their price stability due to their capacity to be grown at a steady rate in facilities, are also being hammered by a wave of skyrocketing raw material costs.

Photo Insert: A number of small and medium-sized bean sprout producers have recently gone out of business.

Due to its reputation as a featured item at supermarkets, producers are in a tough position where they cannot demand retailers dramatically boost the price of this popular, affordable, and tasty vegetable, Ryosuke Kobashiri reported for Yomiuri Shimbun.

Bean sprouts are one of the most popular supermarket items in Adachi Ward, Tokyo. The supermarket pays a wholesale rate of $30 per bag and sells more than 200 bags to its customers each day.

Bean sprouts, according to the store's president, Yozo Niizuma, are popular with a wide spectrum of consumers, from young people living alone to the elderly, and they are also a handy alternative when the price of other vegetables soars.

Bean sprout producers, on the other hand, claim to have reached their limits.

Shoji Hayashi, 68, president of Asahi Bussan in Omitama, Ibaraki Prefecture, laments, "In addition to the soaring price of mung beans, the raw material for bean sprouts, the combination of high oil prices and a weak yen has made it really tough."

Mung beans are grown at the company's Omitama factory by circulating hot water heated via boiler in a light-protected space. Every 24 hours, the factory produces over 200,000 bags, or approximately 40 tons of bean sprouts.

Mung beans are also sourced from the Chinese regions of Shaanxi and Jilin, but farmers there are turning to more profitable corn, and mung bean yields are dropping.

The average import price in 2021 was $260,000 per ton, which was 2.5 times the price in 2008. Because of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the price of fuel oil used to power boilers has soared by 50% since last year.

According to Hayashi, head of the Tokyo-based industry association of bean sprout producers, the number of bean sprout growers has plummeted from approximately 550 around 1995 to roughly 110 in January of this year.

A number of small and medium-sized producers have recently gone out of business. In 2021, the average retail price for 100 grams of bean sprouts was $15.33, and it has moved little over the prior decade.

In February of this year, Asahi Bussan urged merchants to boost the price they pay to stock the bean sprouts, and they agreed to a 2-3 per bag increase. Nonetheless, the company is barely profitable.

“If the situation continues, more and more producers will be forced out of business,” Hayashi emphasized.

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