On Sunday 28 October, the Food & Sake Expo, organised by JFC Australia, was held in Melbourne for buyers, restaurant owners and the general public. CLAIR Sydney supported the Aomori Prefectural Government, who ran a booth promoting their region’s products to attendees. Aomori’s finest local products, such as sake, rice, apple juice and seafood products including calamari, scallop and mackerel items, were available to try.
According to the organisers, approximately 500 people attended the event, 400 of which are buyers and people in the hospitality industry. The Expo was a great opportunity for us to promote regional products and it was wonderful to see the great levels of interaction between exhibitors and attendees.
The next day on 29 October, officials and producers from Aomori and a member of our staff visited local supermarkets that stock Japanese products. We met and spoke with the staff responsible for stocking and selling the products, and shared information about the Aomori products.
This was also an excellent opportunity for CLAIR Sydney to better understand how regional areas in Japan are approaching their promotional efforts in Australia. We would like to make use of this experience to expand Japanese local governments’ overseas business activities.