Taking dashi, a traditional Japanese stock and adapting it for modern dishes, Maruhachi Muramatsu is enhancing the taste and improving the healthiness of dishes in both Japan and abroad.
Can you please introduce yourself and tell us about your company?
I’m Zempachi Muramatsu, the fifth-generation president of Maruhachi Muramatsu, Inc. Our company was founded in 1868 and have specialized in dashi (Japanese soup stock), crafted from seafood-based ingredients like katsuobushi (dried bonito). Since our founding, we have been primarily engaged in B2B business, growing alongside the development and expansion of the food industry. As a trusted leader in dashi, we will continue to expand our business globally that delivers “deliciousness, health, and peace of mind” to people around the world.
For 11 consecutive years, we’ve seen Japanese food-related exports increase. If we look at up to 2023, they reached JPY 1.45 trillion. This has been consolidated overseas by the growing popularity of Japanese restaurants, which grew from 55,000 in 2013 to more than 200,000 today. How do you account for this substantial rise in Japanese food exports? Why is now the time for washoku to shine internationally?
The simplest answer, Japanese cuisine is delicious. But there’s more to it—three key factors truly set it apart. First, its foundation lies in umami, perfectly balanced with delicate and harmonious flavors. Second, it’s celebrated for being low in calories while providing excellent nutritional balance. Third, tourists who experience Japanese food during their visit often seek it out once they return home. Our dashi products have flourished in step with the global rise of Japanese dining culture.
The government is trying to push food-related exports even further, with very ambitious targets of JPY 5 trillion worth of exports by 2030 being set. As a company involved in the industry, are these targets achievable in that time frame? If so, what are some of the opportunities that these targets provide your firm?
With an abundance of high-quality, health-promoting seafood and superfoods like matcha, as well as functional and health-focused foods, achieving the 5 trillion yen market goal feels entirely within reach. For our company, this is an exciting opportunity to introduce the wonders of dashi to the world.
A key factor driving this potential is the global rise in diabetes, often linked to obesity caused by excessive calorie consumption. Diabetes contributes to numerous health issues, emphasizing the need for dietary improvements. By incorporating katsuobushi or kombu-based dashi into not only Japanese cuisine but also Western and international dishes, sugar and salt usage can be reduced without sacrificing delicious flavor. With its unique ability to enhance natural tastes, dashi serves as a powerful ingredient for creating healthier, yet equally delicious meals.
Japan is expecting 27 million inbound tourists by the end of 2024, with even more projected in 2025. While other Asian nations are aware of Japanese food and really enjoy it, further afield in Europe or America, for example, Japanese cuisine is less well known. Have you noticed any changes in this during this recent post-COVID tourism boom? Will inbound tourism be the key to achieving the JPY 5 trillion target?
The appreciation of Japanese cuisine is growing globally, even in distant countries, with Japanese restaurants flourishing across the United States and Europe. We sell dashi and plant-based ramen soups to these restaurants, and our sales have been steadily increasing. In the U.S., many professional chefs are already well-acquainted with dashi, and we are eager to see its recognition expand further among the general public.
In 2010, the Culinary Institute of America’s Napa Valley branch hosted the Worlds of Flavor International Conference and Festival Japan. This event brought together 30 to 40 Japanese chefs and provided an exceptional platform for Japanese manufacturers to showcase products like soy sauce and dashi. The event was a tremendous success. While such events play a vital role, we believe in the equal importance of steady, grassroots efforts to promote and sell our products. Just like the major soy sauce manufacturers, we remain dedicated to consistently advancing the reach of dashi through hard work and perseverance.
When we spoke with Marukome, they spoke about the importance of getting French or American chefs to create recipes that match the local market but use Japanese ingredients. Is this something that interests your company in terms of your dashi?
Absolutely. To encourage the use of traditional Japanese seasonings like miso overseas, it’s crucial to adapt recipes to align with each country’s unique food culture, as Marukome has demonstrated so effectively. Additionally, catering to dietary preferences and religious practices is vital. Dashi made from kombu or shiitake mushrooms is incredibly versatile and can be embraced by people all around the world.
We are also actively exploring new ingredients to develop innovative dashi varieties. While dashi is commonly used in savory dishes, it has surprising potential in sweets. For instance, katsuobushi or kombu dashi can elevate the flavor of sweet red bean paste (anko), and kombu dashi adds incredible depth to risotto. When I visited the Czech Republic, I had the chance to enjoy miso soup made with shiitake mushroom dashi—it was remarkably delicious.
As global palates become more diverse and menus expand, I am confident this will lead to further market growth and exciting opportunities.
Japan faces some serious issues with its aging and declining population. In addition to the problems, efforts abroad are now being hindered by China’s blanket ban on the import of seafood. China accounted for 22% of seafood exports in 2022, making this ban a significant challenge. For your company, looking forward, which are the key overseas markets for your products that you are looking to target?
China undeniably wields immense purchasing power. It’s essential for us to prioritize markets with strong purchasing capacity, such as China, North America, and Europe. At the same time, we are preparing to expand into Southeast Asia and, in the long term, explore opportunities in Africa and South America. However, as a smaller company, we must carefully evaluate legal risks and determine whether we have the capabilities to succeed in these markets.
I’ve seen major seasoning manufacturers enter the African market by offering products in small, affordable portions and educating local consumers on their use. While this approach is admirable, our limited overseas staff makes it challenging to implement at present. Instead, we plan to partner with local companies or continue focusing on high-purchasing-power markets for now.
Many of our clients are global food processors who purchase our dashi, incorporate it into their final products, and distribute them in markets like the United States and Southeast Asia. Although we don’t yet have our own overseas sales bases, this segment continues to show promising growth.
We saw that your company’s research not only covers the culinary industry but also the biopharmaceutical industry. In terms of this side of your business, what are some of the specific products that you are developing for the biopharmaceutical industry?
In biopharmaceutical production, Chinese hamster ovary cells are cultured to create specific substances, and katsuo extracts are used as yield-improving additives in this process. Outside of this field, we are deeply involved in researching and producing functional materials for health foods.
Global challenges like osteoporosis, dementia, and swallowing disorders demand innovative approaches. To tackle these issues, we are committed to rigorous research, publishing findings, and actively participating in academic conferences. This year, we will conduct clinical trials focused on the elderly, striving to contribute to society with products that promote longer, healthier lives.
So much of the food we are consuming these days is flavored with artificial or processed flavors such as MSG. Your business, on the other hand, is really focused on natural foods and natural ingredients that bring taste to the forefront. What are the advantages of your natural flavors over these artificial or processed ones in terms of taste, health, and consumer preferences?
Our products are founded on natural resources like seafood, which form the basis of seasonings rich in diverse flavor and aroma compounds. These elements combine to create a complex and enjoyable sensory experience. Over the years, we have honed techniques to maximize the potential of these ingredients while continuously developing innovative applications to meet our customers’ needs.
Meanwhile, umami seasonings, though simpler in composition, are highly cost-effective and deliver impactful results. By skillfully utilizing the strengths of both, we ensure we fulfill the diverse demands of our customers.
Usually, in Japan, major chain restaurants use a central kitchen to distribute all of their dishes. Is your dashi something that can work overseas where they don’t work on a central kitchen model?
For restaurants and facilities that require authentic dashi, regardless of their size, our products offer an effective solution. Many in the industry face challenges such as labor shortages and the need to reduce working hours. While preparing dashi traditionally was once standard, it has become increasingly difficult to manage.
Our product, Handy Broth, addresses these issues. It is a high-pressure extracted dashi filled into Tetra Gemina® Aseptic Packages, enabling any establishment to create authentic dashi in just 10 seconds. It allows for precise portioning, eliminating waste and the need to discard unused dashi. Moreover, traditional dashi preparation often generates leftover residue, which requires additional disposal effort—an issue entirely avoided with Handy Broth.
In Japan, Handy Broth is widely used across washoku restaurants, ramen shops, udon shops, oden vendors, and central kitchens. Its versatility also makes it a great addition to Western and ethnic cuisines, enhancing the natural flavors of each dish's ingredients.
Your company recently engaged in M&A activities to acquire Higuchi kaisan（樋口海産） and AmakusaSeafoods（天草シーフーズ）. Why did you choose these two food acquisitions? Looking towards the future, is this an area you wish to continue expanding in?
The company we acquired specializes in producing roasted flying fish (yakia-go) and dried sardines (niboshi), with exceptional strength in raw material procurement. Climate change is altering sea temperatures, leading to shifts in the types of fish available and the decline of certain species. Enhancing our raw material procurement capabilities is vital, and we will continue to explore acquisitions of upstream companies with expertise in seafood sourcing. We are also keenly interested in companies with advanced processing technologies. We have received a proposal from a kombu processing company in Hokkaido to join our group, and we have decided to accept it. We will further strengthen our efforts related to kombu.
Nowadays, a number of food-related companies are looking to plant-based foods as a way of achieving their SDGs while offering customers healthy alternatives. We’ve seen that your business is no different, offering alternative, plant-based dashi solutions. Can you tell us about these offerings?
With declining fish stocks and the global rise in vegetarianism, we are focused on developing dashi using non-seafood ingredients. Alongside katsuobushi, kombu remains an essential dashi ingredient, but rising sea temperatures have led to a yearly decline in kombu harvests, a trend we view with great concern. Strengthening our kombu sourcing and product development is a priority, and we dream of introducing both kombu and katsuobushi dashi to gourmets around the globe.
In Japan, non-seafood dashi like kombu and shiitake mushrooms have long been a staple. We are advancing research into these resources while also exploring agricultural ingredients. One of our innovations, Plant Extract (E), is made primarily from edamame. With our expertise in producing seasonings from agricultural products, we also handle several contract manufacturing projects in this area. These plant-based seasonings cater to diverse religious dietary needs, and we are committed to furthering their development.
Moreover, we collaborate with a partner company in Indonesia that holds halal certification, and we are exploring joint product development initiatives to strengthen our offerings.
A majority of your business is currently B2B. Do you plan to develop any direct B2C products in the future?
Although our core focus is on B2B, we have also established a modest presence in B2C markets, selling through department stores and select shops.
The feedback and requests we receive directly from consumers are invaluable, offering insights that we actively incorporate into the development of our B2B products.
Imagine that we come back on the very last day of your presidency and have this interview all over again. What goals or dreams do you hope to achieve by the time we come back for that new interview?
The transition to the next generation of leadership is not far off. Before that time comes, my primary objective is to reorganize our group’s manufacturing facilities. I aim to complete the restructuring of our equipment to produce health-functional materials and seasonings using new technologies. By doing so, we can build a production system capable of serving diverse prospective customers worldwide, delivering even greater flavor and health benefits across the globe.
Fish and agricultural products often generate significant waste, including unused scraps or produce undervalued due to imperfections. Through our processing technology, we strive to transform these materials into high-value products, contributing meaningfully to the SDGs.
After passing on the baton, I hope to focus on contributing to the local community. My vision includes renovating our old warehouses and offices to create spaces for chefs and artists, aiming to foster a vibrant and lively community.
To read more about Maruhachi Muramatsu, check out this article about them
For more information, please visit their website at: https://www.08m.co.jp/
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