Big in Japan

Then came the sanitary restrictions. Lockdowns and closed borders. Months, years. We never abandoned the ambition though, and as soon as the restrictions were lifted enough (they were much stricter in Japan than what we’ve undergone in Finland), we grabbed the opportunity to enjoy the prize. I made a first visit for exploration, feasibility, and market research, in November 2022.

The trip has been fruitful, and on a personal note, an old dream came true. Perhaps, waiting for such a long time and the perspective of not being able to enjoy the award due to the Corona helped me to try to take the most out of it. But before going further in details about it, you may wonder: is that really in line with the values that Helsieni promotes ? 

We advocate local business, sustainability, the principles of circular economy. So why are we going to Japan ?

First, Japan shares with Finland a passion for mushrooms. The oyster mushrooms are locally called hiratake and are widespread in Japanese cuisine. Besides, even if Japanese people don’t drink as much coffee as Finnish people (…actually almost nobody in the world drinks as much coffee as the Finns), Japan is still the biggest coffee consumer per capita in Asia.

That gives a solid basis to expand our concept, but that’s not enough.

Our plan is not to ship around our growkits to the other end of the world (and even less our mushrooms). At Helsieni, sustainability is not an empty word for greenwashing. It’s a daily concern that we constantly try to improve at all levels: production, deliveries, packaging, shipments. 

Our plan is neither to tell Japanese people how to grow mushrooms; they know how to do that better than anyone else and that inspires humility.

What we want is precisely to expand Helsieni’s values. 

Concretely it means that we want to do in Japan what we consider having been successful doing in Finland so far: helping more and more users every year (individuals and professionals) to use or reuse their own resources around them, waste or by-products, to grow mushrooms and thus secure their own local supply of natural delicious food.

We have accumulated, over the last 5 years, skills, experience, and best practices. Our know-how can now be spread, to eventually implement an urban farm in other cities.

Of course the modalities still need to be decided, and we remain flexible and agile to adapt to various situation, depending on the opportunities of partnerships with local organisations (public ones and local companies), depending also on who is going to join the project.

I have a clear vision of what to achieve and where we want to go. But the paths can be diverse. Therefore this initial trip has been the opportunity to explore the local reality of Japan in general and of Fukuoka in particular, to meet with potential stakeholders. For example, I could visit Hiyoriko, one hour drive away from the city, thanks to Michael Kato. 

Hiyoriko has been a traditional shiitake farm for decades. They have recently diversified their activities with a restaurant located in refurbished shipping containers, with a show-room to visit the place where the mushrooms grow, and with many new derived products based on shiitake, sold online and in their shop. You can learn more from their beautiful website www.hiyoriko.co.jp .

We have also a clear strategy for the coming months about how to launch that project.

First we have started to introduce our most emblematic product, the starter kit, as a means to introduce Helsieni, our values, and get a foothold locally. The first feedback has been positive and an adapted version will be sold on the Japanese market.