Taiwan's traditional specialty processed goods embody a deep local terroir culture, but community-based producers lack a support system coming from the state, and their knowledge of process management and professional theory is comparatively lacking. In Miyazaki Prefecture, Japan, besides building a professional food-processing support system and leasing it out to farmers or small producers, there is another cooperative approach that combines community-based processing plants, so that safe food can be made right in the community, balancing traditional characteristics with modern requirements.

Mr. Kuroki wants to make his own mayonnaise

Mr. Kuroki runs a chicken yakitori restaurant in the Miyazaki city area. Recently, because of family reasons, he wanted to increase his extra income, and after thinking it over he decided to use his professional chef skills to develop a mayonnaise recipe and start a new side business in processed goods.

Home cooking is common in Japan, and household seasonings are used frequently. If you can develop a product with good flavor and capture a stable customer base, then for a seasoning like mayonnaise that every household must have and that is consumed in large quantities, the volume that can be sold each week is also quite astonishing.

To open up his own side-business path, Mr. Kuroki visited the FOOD BUSNIESS consultation desk many times to discuss direction and strategy with advisors. The FOOD BUSNIESS consultation desk under the Miyazaki Industrial Promotion Organization has many advisors with different areas of expertise, and can provide various free consultation services to local business owners and the general public. Besides business strategy, it can also match different operators within the prefecture, fully developing Miyazaki Prefecture's unique characteristics.

After discussing with the advisor, Mr. Kuroki finally decided to make soy milk mayonnaise that contains no eggs, milk, or other potential allergens, in order to create market differentiation. The advisor in charge told Mr. Kuroki that in Miyazaki Prefecture's Morotsuka Village there are farmers growing soybeans, and also introduced him to a community processing workshop in Morotsuka Village with experience in making mayonnaise, so that he could directly entrust this workshop with producing his recipe. (For Miyazaki Prefecture's advisor support system, see the case study)

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