Newsletter

Nokomis conquering the world

For the Nokomis company of Vincent More and Jean-Yves Richard, founded in 2005 in Trois-Pistoles, maple syrup is worth its weight in gold. The company, which exports to twenty countries from South America to Asia, was present at the 43rd presentation of FOODEX Japan which took place in Tokyo, Japan from March 7 to 10.

The commercial exhibition of the bio-food sector, which has nearly 2,000 exhibitors, is the most popular in the land of the rising sun. It is also the largest in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region and the third largest internationally. As proof, the Japanese organization lists the presence of no less than 73,789 registered visitors for the four days.

“It’s really big, launches Vincent More. There are many foreign exhibitors. You have to understand that Japan is a food market that depends a lot on imports. There are several imported products such as maple syrup, of course, but it’s much broader,” he explains.

The year 2023 marks a return for Nokomis after a few years of absence. “We have been around for a long time, but with the pandemic, Japan was pretty much closed. It reopened on Monday, but while we were there, the mask was compulsory everywhere, including in the parks, ”says the businessman who was accompanied by his son Elie.

The Japanese attach great importance to relationships and these four days of exhibition allowed the company to capitalize on these encounters. Nokomis mainly targets distributors.

“Restaurants, retailers we refer them to our customers who target different market segments. We have about ten importers and it is with them that we work. If people are in “food service”, we will refer them to our “food service” wholesaler. Same thing in organic,” explains Vincent More.

As for organic, precisely, the company is JAS certified, a certification and an organic farming label in Japan. This certification allows the marketing of organic products in the land of the samurai. It is intended for farmers, producers, processors, reconditioners in the agri-food sector. Nokomis offers organic as so-called “conventional” syrup, but also in bulk. “Our market is still diversified there,” says Mr. More.

The archipelago represents 15% of the company’s sales. FOODEX is therefore an essential showcase for Nokomis, 95% of whose sales are for export. By importance, the United Kingdom (1is), Japan (2e), France (3e), Germany (4e) and South Korea (5e) are the five main countries to which the Pistol company exports.

“We are still looking to develop our existing markets, but also to develop new ones,” underlines Mr. More. The latter cites Australia in particular.

The company buys from Bellechasse to Gaspésie, but 70% of its supply comes from the KRTB. Nokomis processes no less than 5 million pounds of maple syrup.

YOU SYRUP ET YOU BASEBALL

When you think of Japan, several things come to mind. The food, think of sushi or real ramen, Mount Fuji, geishas, ​​brave samurai, crowded public transport, manga, the list goes on. But among the More, while maple syrup is king, baseball is never far away. And they weren’t the only ones in the land of chrysanthemums to closely follow the World Baseball Classic.

In Japan who says baseball says Shohei Ohtani. The pitcher and designated hitter, a rarity since the exploits of the legendary Babe Ruth at the start of the 20th century, is a real stadium god there, but not that… “It’s the world championships, and it’s extremely popular. And I confirm that when Ohtani was playing, I had to find a TV for my son who is a student in sports-studies baseball and who loves # 17 of the Angels,” said Vincent More, laughing.

Now remains to be seen if Nokomis homered at FOODEX.

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Trending