Central Wholesale Market Research Articles

Shifts in Vegetable Supply and Demand from 2010–2019 to the 2020–2021 COVID-19 Period at the Tokyo Metropolitan Central Wholesale Market

コロナ禍期間にあった2020–2021年における野菜の需給動向を，2019年以前の過去10年間と比較しながら確認した．東京都中央卸売市場に出荷されている144品目を月ごとに分析し，1657月別品目の需要と供給，並びに価格の動向を確認した．その結果，野菜の需給動向は，月別品目によって異なり多様であることが再認識されたが，あえて全体的な傾向を指摘すれば，需要と供給が減退している月別品目が多く，その傾向が直近の変動においてより強まっている．コロナ禍との関連では，家庭内需要が多い指定野菜で需要が増加した月別品目が見られた．これに対して業務需要が多い輸入野菜と香辛つま物類で需要が減退した月別品目が多かった．季節的には春から夏にかけて需要が減退した月別品目が多かった．こうした需要の減退に比べて価格が低下した月別品目が少なかったが，これは供給が減らされたためで，出荷者の損失は大きかったと推測される．

Feeding the Urban Leviathan

Mexico City, a crowded and sprawling metropolis of 22 million residents, is not only one of the world’s most populated urban settlements but also one of the most vulnerable. Overburdened by a centuries-long series of compounding crises, Mexico City has always lived on the verge of an imminent and irreversible collapse. Water scarcity, floods, earthquakes, pollution, violence, traffic, overpopulation, and health issues have all taken their toll on a city that has, nonetheless and against all odds, managed to survive. When the first wave of COVID-19 hit in early 2020, Mexico City faced a hitherto overlooked threat: food insecurity. One of the communities hardest hit by the pandemic was the central wholesale market, Central de Abasto, which controls 80 percent of the food bought, sold, and consumed throughout the Metropolitan Area of the Valley of Mexico. This article takes a close look at the political, economic, and ideological causes and effects of Mexico City’s over-centralized model of food supply and distribution and how it has added to its state of permanent crisis.

Records of rat control campaigns in a food market with the largest seafood trading volume worldwide

Brown rats (Rattus norvegicus) and roof rats (Rattus rattus) are among the most common mammals worldwide. Little is known about the effects of season on rat population size, which is important for understanding rat ecology and/or performing effective rat control campaigns. Tsukiji Market was a metropolitan central wholesale market in Tokyo and was located within 1 km from one of the biggest downtown areas. To control rats in the market, a pest management professional exclusively conducted annual campaigns at two fixed time points for many years. In addition, the pest management professional successfully confined all rats to the market and exterminated them when the market was closed and demolished. We analyzed these records to assess whether this rat population in Tokyo showed seasonal fluctuation and to provide information regarding rat management in a facility located in a downtown area. Multiple regression analyses revealed that trap success was affected by human activities (total trading volume and number of foreign tourists in Japan), but not by the month the campaign was performed. These results suggest that the rat population in this market did not show seasonal fluctuation. The results also suggest the importance of the effect of human activities on the ecological dynamics of rats in urban cities. We also described details of the campaigns performed as the market prepared to close to provide information regarding how to control rats in facilities in a downtown area.

The Central Wholesale Market under the Emergency and its Publicness

In several countries such as China, the United States, and Germany, wholesale markets and abattoirs bore the brunt of COVID-19's impact. Although no similar situation has been reported in Japan, this should not be taken for granted. Through the interviews with city officials managing the Kyoto Central Wholesale Market, this presentation shed light on how Japanese wholesale markets fought against the COVID-19 by examining Kyoto's success during the first emergency declaration (April and May 2020). The construction of an information-sharing system, the free distribution of sanitary goods, early coordination with professional sanitizers, and relevant financial measures (e.g., postponing facility fee payment) were effective in maintaining market operations. These successful measures were made possible by a couple of factors: active engagement by the city government based on the “logic of publicness”, its historical market culture, which encourages discussion/communication, and the high professional ethics of those in charge of “social infrastructure”. In contrast to the recent discourse about wholesale markets' delegating functions, the lesson from Kyoto's COVID-19 response highlighted us of its significance in 1) fortifying the robustness of the food system under emergency conditions and 2) restructuring to create a territorialized food system in the future.

The Current Situation of Multiple Markets Network in the Tokyo Metropolitan Central Wholesale Market System

The Current Situation of Multiple Markets Network in the Tokyo Metropolitan Central Wholesale Market System

Cold Storage Warehouse at Tokyo Central Wholesale Market

Cold Storage Warehouse at Tokyo Central Wholesale Market

DO MANUFACTURING SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES CLUSTER GEOGRAPHICALLY IN KHULNA CITY? – A SPATIAL ANALYSIS

DO MANUFACTURING SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES CLUSTER GEOGRAPHICALLY IN KHULNA CITY? – A SPATIAL ANALYSIS

Testing price leadership in major regional maize markets in Ethiopia: implications for targeted market intervention

ABSTRACTThe central market hypothesis or price leadership role is an important concept of market integration, and it has relevant policy implications because it simplifies market price monitoring and intervention in the grain market. Knowledge about the presence of a central market and its price dynamic effects on satellite markets will assist the effectiveness of food assistance and other humanitarian food price support interventions. This is of particular interest to constant food aid recipients such as Ethiopia. This article intends to empirically investigate as to whether or not there is a central maize market that dictate and lead price information flow over the regional wholesale maize markets in Ethiopia. If such a dominant maize market exists, then how does its price affect the maize grain prices of major regional wholesale maize markets in Ethiopia? The extended VAR procedure of Toda and the Yamamoto Granger Causality approach is used to test the central maize market hypothesis. Furthermore, we use the system of seemingly unrelated regression model to examine the effects of the central market price on three wholesale regional maize market prices in Ethiopia. The results indicate that Addis Ababa wholesale maize market influences the maize price formation of all regional maize markets examined in this study. Therefore, interventions targeting the central wholesale market could successfully provide a buffer for local maize surplus and consumption markets against undesirable price shocks stemming from the central market.

Prevalence, antimicrobial resistance and multiple-locus variable-number tandem-repeat analysis profiles of diarrheagenic Escherichia coli isolated from different retail foods

Diarrheagenic E. coli (DEC) isolates were recovered from local retail markets and the Osaka Municipal Central Wholesale Market in Japan. Retail food samples were collected for analysis in Osaka Japan from 2005 to 2008 and consisted of 32 beef, 28 pork, 20 poultry, 136 fish, 66 fruits and vegetables and 51 ready–to-eat (RTE) food samples. A total of 82 DEC strains were recovered from 64 (19%) food samples with the highest prevalence in poultry (100%, 20/20), followed by pork (54%, 15/28), beef (28%, 9/32), fruits and vegetables (12%, 8/66), fish (6.6%, 9/136) and RTE foods (5.9%, 3/51). Most of the strains belonged to E. coli possessing the enteroaggregative E. coli (EAEC) heat-stable enterotoxin 1 (EAST1) gene (EAST1EC; n=62, P<0.0001) and enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC; n=16, P<0.01), whereas only 1 strain belonged to Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC), 1 to EAEC and 2 to enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC) strains. Of the 82 DEC isolates, 22 O and 13H serogroups were detected, including some specific serogroups (O91, O103, O115, O119, O126, and O157) which have been associated with human diarrheal infections. Phylogenetic group A and B1 were predominant among the DEC isolates. Antimicrobial resistance to tetracycline was most common (49%), followed by nalidixic acid (28%), ampicillin (24%), sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim (20%), and cephalothin (18%). All isolates were susceptible to aztreonam. Of the resistant strains, 44% (22/50) demonstrated resistance to >3 antimicrobial agents. Isolates resistant to >5 antimicrobials were only found in the meat samples, while isolates from the fruits and vegetables as well as RTE foods showed resistance to only 1 or 2 antimicrobial agents. Sixty one percent of EAST1EC, 56% of EPEC and all of the EAEC and ETEC were resistant to at least 1 antimicrobial agent. Multiple-locus variable-number tandem repeat analysis (MLVA) was used in this study for genotyping of DEC. The 82 isolates collected for this study showed 77 distinct MLVA profiles located among 3 branches. The Simpson's Index of Diversity (D) was 99.9% at its highest. The high diversity of these food strains would suggest their originating from a variety of sources and environments. In conclusion, retail food samples in Japan were contaminated with DEC; EAST1EC, a putative DEC, were detected at high rates in poultry, pork and beef. Isolates resistant to >3 antimicrobials were found only in raw meat and fish. Food animals may act as the reservoir for multi-resistant bacteria. Due to the finding that nearly 1/3 of EAST1EC strains were resistant to >3 antimicrobials, additional surveillance for EAST1EC should be initiated.

Trade Practices on the Wholesale Trading of Fresh Produce: Requests from Retail Companies and Compliances of Intermediate Wholesalers in the Tokyo Metropolitan Central Wholesale Market

Trade Practices on the Wholesale Trading of Fresh Produce: Requests from Retail Companies and Compliances of Intermediate Wholesalers in the Tokyo Metropolitan Central Wholesale Market

How do agricultural markets respond to radiation risk? Evidence from the 2011 disaster in Japan

Since the explosion of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in March 2011, public anxiety surrounding the radioactive contamination of food and the environment has become widespread. This article examines how vegetable prices in the Tokyo Metropolitan Central Wholesale Market were affected in the wake of the nuclear accident. This study exploits the quasi-experimental condition generated by this accident to test market price changes using monthly panel data on the price of six types of fresh vegetables from each of the 47 prefectures in Japan. Our estimation results show that the prices of vegetables grown in Fukushima Prefecture decreased by 10–36% after the disaster compared with the counter-factual estimates in the absence of a perceived radiation risk. This effect has persisted even after radioactive detection tests showed negative results in subsequent years. The consumer behavior of avoiding vegetables from Fukushima and instead buying vegetables grown in other areas may explain the price gap.

Impact of residential electricity tariffs with variable energy prices on low voltage grids with photovoltaic generation

This paper presents an approach integrating simulation models for residential electricity demand with price elasticity and electricity generation from photovoltaic systems as well as for load flow analysis using Monte Carlo simulation in low voltage distribution grids. The price elasticity model, using metering data collected within a field test including approximately 1100 households, and the application of the approach for analysing the impact of alternative electricity tariffs on grid utilisation for different use cases constitute the main contribution. We compare a tariff using constant prices with tariffs using variable prices, one of which is directly derived from the central wholesale market, while another one is subject to sales-driven rules and regional renewable electricity availability. The results reveal that generation peaks lead to power flow reversions and an exceedance of the limit for voltage deviation in several hours for high photovoltaic installation rates and thus to more critical situations than demand peaks for the considered low voltage grid. While the considered tariffs can, generally, support grid stability, several drawbacks should be reduced in future tariff design: the considered sales-driven tariff may aggravate critical grid situations during demand peaks while a tariff, solely deriving its variable prices from a central wholesale market, may not be suitable to relieve critical grid situations during distributed generation peaks.

名古屋市での生鮮食品取扱量に基づいた温室効果ガス排出量の算出とその経年変動

Objective. It is recommended to reduce the greenhouse gases (GHG) for good environment action even when we buy fresh produce. The objective of this research is to calculate the amount of GHG emissions from fresh produce arriving in Nagoya City and also to analyze yearly variation in five years.Results and Discussion. We calculated the amount of GHG emissions about the level of production and transportation for 37 items(fruits, vegetables, meat and seafood) based on the amount of treatment in Nagoya Central Wholesale Market during 2008～2012. As a result, the amount of GHG emissions about the production level of the fruits and vegetables which was cultivated with heat was larger than that of the others and correlative to the amount of treatment. The GHG emissions from transportation process of the items that were transported from a distant place such as the Hokkaido or Tohoku regions were higher than those from the others. The annual amount of GHG emissions varied in response to annual national production or catch, and it was decreased over time for many items.Conclusions. The current work showed the amount of GHG emission of fresh produce in the level of production and transportation was vary greatly by heated cultivation or unheated cultivation and also the distance of transportation. It also showed the amount of GHG emission about many fresh produce is reducing over time.

Detection rate of diarrhoea-causing Kudoa hexapunctata in Pacific bluefin tuna Thunnus orientalis from Japanese waters

Diffuse outbreaks of food poisoning with unknown aetiologies leading to diarrhoea and vomiting within a short time after ingesting flatfish (Paralichthys olivaceus), tuna (Thunnus spp.), or amberjack (Seriola dumerili) have occurred nationwide in Japan, including the Tokyo metropolitan area. In this study, we surveyed the detection rates of kudoid parasites in 12 tuna samples that caused clinical diarrhoea from 2009 to 2012; we assessed 104 samples of whole juvenile Pacific bluefin tuna (PBT, Thunnus orientalis) and 153 block samples of other tuna distributed in the Tokyo Metropolitan Central Wholesale Market. The survey revealed that more than 70% of clinical diarrhoea cases due to tuna ingestion occurred between June and September, and Kudoa hexapunctata were detected in 9 of 12 tuna samples associated with clinical diarrhoea cases. The numbers of spores and 18S ribosomal DNA (rDNA) copies per gram of fish in 8 of 9 samples were more than 1×106 spores and 1×109 copies, respectively. Market research revealed that the K. hexapunctata-positive rate in juvenile PBT from Japanese waters was 64.4% (67/104) but that in adult PBT was 10.4% (7/67). The numbers of K. hexapunctata 18S rDNA copies in 64.5% (20/31) samples and 72.7% (16/22) of <5kg fish samples collected between May and July were more than 1×109copies/g. On the other hand, kudoid parasites were not detected from 73 tuna samples except for a single sample of Thunnus albacares. Cell monolayer permeability assays performed to examine the toxicity of K. hexapunctata against Caco-2 cells revealed that the transepithelial electrical resistance (TER) in 5×107K. hexapunctata spores decreased by 80% within 2–4h. In conclusion, K. hexapunctata was commonly detected in juvenile PBT from Japanese waters and are a likely cause of the diarrhoea outbreaks.

福島原子力発電所事故に伴う野菜の"風評"被害額の推計 : 東京都中央卸売市場2011年3月~2012年2月

福島原子力発電所事故に伴う野菜の"風評"被害額の推計 : 東京都中央卸売市場2011年3月~2012年2月

The occurrence of hypertetraploid and other unusual polyploid loaches Misgurnus anguillicaudatus among market specimens in Japan

Exotic animals can cause genetic contamination of indigenous species if they escape and reproduce in wild populations. The loach Misgurnus anguillicaudatus and species related to it have been imported into Japan for commercial use. We collected live loach specimens from the central wholesale market in Tokyo. For the 451 specimens collected, ploidy status was examined by DNA content flow cytometry, and polyploid loaches with triploid, tetraploid, and other higher ploidy ranges were detected. Hypertriploid and hypertetraploid individuals were easily detected by flow cytometry using standard eudiploid, eutriploid, and eutetraploid controls, and the reproductive capacities of these hyperpolyploid males were then examined. Sperm of hypertriploid males did not exhibit active progressive motility, and major populations of spermatozoa or spermatozoon-like cells were detected in the triploid and hexaploid ranges. Motile haploid spermatozoa were very rare in sperm from hypertriploid males. Therefore, hypertriploid males were sterile, whereas hypertetraploid males produced fertile hyperdiploid spermatozoa with active progressive motility after contact with ambient water. Viable progeny occurred in crosses between normal wild-type diploid females and hypertetraploid males, but androgenotes induced by the fertilization of UV-irradiated eggs with the sperm of hypertetraploid males were inviable hyperdiploids. Cytogenetic analyses of those androgenotes indicated that hypertetraploid males should produce hyperdiploid spermatozoa with 2n = 54 (i.e., four supernumerary microchromosomes).

Study on the Reconstruction Project for Central Wholesale Market of Fresh Produce in Metropolitan Jakarta

Study on the Reconstruction Project for Central Wholesale Market of Fresh Produce in Metropolitan Jakarta

Characteristics of A Local Central Wholesale Market

Characteristics of A Local Central Wholesale Market

Analysis of the Factors that Have Effect on Time Required for Every Auction of Vegetables and Fruits in the Central Wholesale Market of Gifu City

Analysis of the Factors that Have Effect on Time Required for Every Auction of Vegetables and Fruits in the Central Wholesale Market of Gifu City

The Buenos Aires Central Wholesale Market (BACWN): A Case of Multiple Power

The Buenos Aires Central Wholesale Market is a place where a lot of social and political relationships with different degrees of power are developed. Since this market was opened in 1984, the participating actors have faced several internal and external transformations, such as the implementation of neo liberal policies, changes in the Market’s administrative rules and the introduction of new actors in the retail distribution chain. Therefore, this article shows how international economic processes and policies become embedded in local distribution systems, and focuses on the spatial and social variability, i.e. the multiplicity of local social actors and interests involved in the globalization process. The article aims at exploring the creation of the Buenos Aires Central Wholesale Market as a constructed process linked with different kinds of social and political interests and motivations. In this respect, we combined the theoretical framework of political economy and the actor-oriented approach along with different ethnographic tools. The first one helps us to analyse the macro-dynamics of the market, whereas the second one allows us to analyse how people experience global processes in this particular social space. By doing so, we studied the strategies that actors developed in order to confront changes. Since the opening of the Buenos Aires Wholesale Market, these changes have modified the degree of economic and social relevance of the Market, thus generating different degrees of power in the actors involved