Passing through the Morioka City streets adorned with buildings that remain from the Meiji and Taisho eras (1868 - 1926), one might mistaken the area in northeastern Japan for a transplanted miniature Kyoto. Against its classic architecture background, Morioka City is also home to a top performing direct agriculture produce retail station - "Sun-Fresh Tonan."

In this issue of Farming, we explore the secrets of “Sun-Fresh Tonan and its 15 years of operations that have allowed it to become the top performing agriculture produce direct retailer among the 250 outlets in Iwate Prefecture.

For a long time, Tonan village stood famous as having the largest village population in Japan until it merged with Morioka City in 1992. The early roots of Sun-Fresh Tonan came in 1995 when an agricultural co-operative in the area established a direct retail section. In 2005, that section became independent with a new name, Sun-Fresh Tonan.

Most recently, the annual revenue of Sun-Fresh Tonan has grown to roughly Yen 800 million with approximately 400,000 visiting customers every year. That equates to about 1,100 customers on an average business day.

On Saturdays, the busiest day for the station, cars filled with customers are lined up outside prior to business hours, while inside, workers stack fresh vegetables that have been brought to harvest with great care by approximately 500 separate farmers.

When the doors are opened, customers rush in and begin filling shopping baskets with handfuls of produce while store clerks quickly replenish shelves with more fresh vegetables.

Sun-Fresh Tonan is very popular not only because of the freshness and low prices of the vegetables sold there, but also thanks to the wide variety of fresh fish and meat that is also available. Iwate Prefecture faces the Pacific Ocean, and has a deeply-indented coastline called the “Sanriku Kaigan,” which has a complicated landscape of bays. The coastline also boasts one of the best fisheries in Japan, and fresh fish is brought into Sun-Fresh Tonan every day from the Sanriku Kaigan. Iwate Prefecture is also famous for its own brand of beef, Iwate-Gyu, which is sold at the retail station.

Sun-Fresh Tonan always strives to aggressively expand its business network to different food types. “In doing so, farmers in the area can enjoy more opportunities, which will translate into a larger momentum for the local community,” said Mr. Sasaki, managing director of Sun-Fresh Tonan. The direct retail station has already garnered much attention for its various successful approaches for expanding business.