Premium strawberries helped the Japanese city of Yamamoto recover from the earthquake and tsunami that destroyed nearly all of its agriculture a decade ago, writes Bloomberg.
Yamamoto is located five hours north of Tokyo and has about 12 thousand inhabitants. In March 2011, an earthquake triggered a massive tsunami that destroyed 97 percent of the city’s strawberry greenhouses. Sea water has covered most of the land, making it unsuitable for crops.
However, startup GRA Inc., founded four months after the disaster, helped save the city’s economy, rebuild agriculture and create jobs. Since 2017, strawberry production in Yamamoto has returned to pre-tsunami levels and even higher. The GRA currently grows 400 tons of strawberries annually and sells them for $ 10 apiece. More than half of the agricultural production in the city comes from strawberries.
Japan’s GDP from July to September last year grew by 21.4 percent in annual terms, which was a record in the last 40 years. Quarterly GDP growth in real terms was five percent compared to the previous three months. Consumption increased by 4.7 percent and exports by seven percent.