Hokkaido (Prefecture)

Hokkaido is Japan’s northernmost island. It is renowned for its harsh climate, the otherworldly beauty of its natural landscape, its thriving agriculture and livestock farming… and, above all, the exceptional quality of its produce. Hokkaido Prefecture’s food self-sufficiency rate stands at 200 per cent in a country that imports 73 per cent of its calories. It is therefore a question of quantity, but also of quality: many products originating from Hokkaido, particularly cereals, milk and seaweed, are renowned for their delicious flavour. But why is that?

Everything starts in the soil. Hokkaido is surprisingly rich in volcanic soils covered with organic compounds. These "andosols" are overflowing with nutrients that allow farmers to grow the best grains in the country: rice, wheat, and buckwheat from Hokkaido are as expensive as they are delicious. Similarly, the cows grazing in the local pastures benefit from the richness of the soil. Their meat rivals that of Kobe beef, and their milk is sometimes described as the best in the world. 

And that's not all. Hokkaido is also famous for its seafood: kombu seaweed, oysters, sea urchins, crabs and spider crabs, scallops, salmon roe, squid… The waters of the prefecture are conducive to life due to their freshness, but also because of their great richness in nutrients. These are simply said to be "deposited" in the local seas by icebergs from Siberia. The nightlife district of Sapporo, the capital of Hokkaido, is also renowned throughout Japan, but that's another story.