Ryusuke Oishi

By Ryusuke Oishia

Recent years have seen changes in the trade of licorice between Japan and China. Particularly, the price of imported Chinese licorice has been increasing every year. As the price of Chinese licorice is expected to remain high, Japanese importers may find it increasingly difficult to import licorice from China, leading to a decline in the use of Chinese licorice in Japan. Instead of focusing on the pharmacological properties of licorice, we examine data such as the price and trading volume between China and Japan in order to analyze the licorice market from an economic perspective. From our analysis, we conclude that the recent increase in the price of Chinese licorice in Japan is mainly due to the combined effect of an increase in demand and a decrease in the supply of the product. We demonstrate the need for a cultivated strain as a substitute for native Chinese strains to ensure the continued supply of licorice in Japan.

Part of the book: Licorice Ingredients

By Ryusuke Oishi

Cereals are essential for human nutrition. However, the ever-increasing world population makes it difficult to maintain the cereal production and consumption security. It is essential to overcome this situation by increasing cereal yield. An additional issue is the fact that while some countries suffer from hunger, a significant amount of food is discarded in others. This study analyses both production and consumption of cereals with the goal of ensuring food security. On the production side, many developing countries lack production capacity in contrast to developed countries. This is mainly due to a lack of capital, technology and human resources skills. In this study, we first theoretically demonstrated a cereal production gap between developing and developed countries. Second, we performed an empirical analysis to confirm the theoretical demonstration. On the consumption side, we focused on the cause of food loss and waste. We apply economic theories to demonstrate the situation where food loss and waste are occurring in the market. Then we introduced the related data to interpret the current world situation. Finally, we discussed the potential measures to improve cereal production and consumption.

Part of the book: Cereal Grains

By Ryusuke Oishi

Global population growth and environmental burdens have caused rising concerns regarding future food security. Contradictorily, many crops are discarded at postharvest stages without being consumed. Postharvest loss in developing countries is mainly attributable to a lack of capital and technology for food storage, processing (i.e. threshing, drying and packaging) and distribution. This study endeavours to investigate the causes and the potential measurements of postharvest losses in developing countries. Specifically, limited budgets in developing countries cannot finance the cost of capital investment; therefore, reliance on third parties such as international organisations is considered a realistic measurement. This investigation establishes that in some cases, a lack of knowledge and skills can result in a lack of full utilisation of the capital provided for handling post-harvest crops. Supporters are discouraged from providing development assistance in circumstances in which whether sufficient results will be achieved is unclear. This study emphasises that enabling the successful long-term utilisation of capital for postharvest handling is critical to improving the rate of vital crop loss.

Part of the book: Postharvest Technology