At the time Nichirei Fresh began its JUNWAKEI Chicken, poultry farming, the town of Hirono in Iwate Prefecture, where the poultry farm is located, and the neighboring town of Karumai were experiencing a number of fallow fields due to rice production adjustments. The number of farmers was declining accordingly. The decline of local industry was feared.

The feed used by JUNWAKEI Chicken was also causing a certain amount of trouble.

In general, grains such as corn, soybean meal, and milo ( a type of sorghum used as feed) make up the bulk of the feed used in poultry farming. Most of these grains are imported from overseas.

As Nichirei Fresh raises chickens purely domestically, we want to use feed that does not rely on imports. This was the thought that was rising within the members of the farm.

In the midst of these concerns, they turned their attention to the rice paddies in Karumai town, a neighboring town of Hirono in Iwate Prefecture, where the poultry farm is located.

Nichirei Fresh purchases the feed rice grown in neighboring rice paddies, thereby enriching the local industry once again and enabling Nichirei Fresh to procure feed without relying on imports.

In order to realize the "Feed Rice Project," a production system based on regional recycling, JA Shin-Iwate (New Iwate Agricultural Cooperative) has cooperated with Nichirei Fresh Farm since 2009 by concluding annual contracts between rice farmers in Hirono town and Karumai town and Nichirei Fresh Farm to procure feed rice.

In fact, poultry farms generate a large amount of chicken manure on a daily basis. Chicken manure has to be disposed of as industrial waste, which has been a source of hassle and cost.

We decided to process the chicken manure from JUNWAKEI Chicken into an organic fertilizer and use it for rice cultivation. A recycling-oriented production cycle was born, starting with JUNWAKEI Chicken linking Nichirei Fresh and the local community.

In 2009, the first year of the project, 25 hectares were planted in Karumai town and approximately 100 tons of feed rice was harvested. The planted area is increasing year by year, and fallow fields are once again bearing ears of rice. Today, Hirono and Karumai town have a combined area of 340 hectares, or about 73 times the size of the Tokyo Dome, and approximately 1,900 tons of feed rice is grown there.

This cyclical production cycle has become a major attraction of Junwakei chicken. Kitagawa, who is in charge of product planning, describes the advantages of blending rice into the feed.

Nichirei Fresh's ties with the local community are growing ever deeper, as evidenced by the use of a closed local elementary school building for the preservation of feed rice and the offering of JUNWAKEI Chicken to local residents at festivals held in the towns of Hirono and Karumai.

The Feed Rice Project, which also contributed to local employment and industry, received a great response, and in October 2020, the company received a distinctive JAS certification for sustainability-conscious chicken meat.

This is a JAS standard for eggs and chicken meat that takes into consideration the sustainability of production resources and animal welfare, established for the purpose of promoting domestic chicken breeds. This was the first domestic approval for chicken meat.

Hamasaki, who was in charge of sales to supermarkets, retailers, and co-ops, says,

Nichirei Fresh has decided to take on a challenge in 2020, and it is to convey the appeal of JUNWAKEI Chicken to a wider audience.
Part 4: JUNWAKEI Chicken has become a world-renowned chicken meat!