China's cinnamon exports to Japan are expected to exceed $150 million

China's cinnamon exports to the Japanese market have grown steadily, with a year-on-year increase of 12% in 2023. High-quality alpine cinnamon has become the first choice for Japanese cuisine and Kampo medicine. Japan's strict standards have pushed domestic companies to accelerate GAP certification, and the small packaging strategy of cross-border e-commerce has reversely affected procurement standards. In the future, it is necessary to break through JAS certification and functional product development to seize the $150 million market with lasting competitiveness.

In recent years, China's cinnamon exports to the Japanese market have shown a steady growth trend. Behind this trend is not only the strong demand for high-quality spices in the Japanese market, but also reflects the continuous optimization of China's cinnamon industry in planting, processing and international trade chains. According to customs data, China's cinnamon exports to Japan increased by 12% year-on-year in 2023. Among them, high mountain cinnamon in major producing areas such as Guangxi and Guangdong has become the preferred raw material for high-end Japanese cuisine and Kampo medicine due to its unique flavor.

1. The demand characteristics of the Japanese market drive export growth.

As the world's third largest importer of spices, Japanese consumers have strict standards for food traceability and quality certification. From the search results, it can be seen that about 65% of Japan's imported cinnamon is used in the field of food processing, especially the stable demand for seasoning of traditional foods such as wagashi and curry; 30% flows into the Kampo medicine market, which is directly related to the increasing attention paid to Chinese medicinal materials by Japan's aging society. It is worth noting that the "Food Additives Standards" newly revised by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare of Japan in 2024 have stricter pesticide residue limits for Chinese cinnamon than EU standards, which has prompted domestic export companies to accelerate the promotion of GAP (Good Agricultural Practices) certification. For example, a leading enterprise in Wuzhou, Guangxi, has successfully entered the supply chain of large Japanese wholesalers such as Itochu Corporation by building a traceability system to control the sulfur dioxide residue of its products below 0.05g/kg.

2. Differentiated competitive advantages of Chinese production areas.

China's main cinnamon producing areas have formed unique competitiveness with geographical indication products. Taking "Xijiang Gui" as an example, its cinnamaldehyde content is more than 75%, far exceeding that of the production areas in Yuenan and Indonesia. This high volatile oil characteristic is particularly suitable for the Japanese baking industry's requirements for aroma persistence. According to statistics from the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Native Produce and Animal Husbandry, in the first quarter of 2024, Japanese customers' inquiries for "Purple Oil Gui" in Liubao Town, Guangxi surged by 40% year-on-year. This type of old tree cinnamon with a tree age of more than 15 years has thick cortex and spicy and sweet flavor levels, making it a new choice for high-end Japanese restaurants to replace Sri Lankan cinnamon. In the processing link, the ancient "three steaming and three drying" process used in Luoding, Guangdong, can increase the cinnamic acid content to 2.3%. This technical barrier has enabled the Japanese Kampo company Tsumura Co., Ltd. to sign a long-term procurement agreement for three consecutive years.

3. Sales changes brought by cross-border e-commerce

The cross-border small-order fast-selling model is filling the blank market that the B2B sales model cannot fill. Search results show that in 2024, the repurchase rate of Chinese cinnamon powder products sold through Amazon Japan and Rakuten Market reached 28%, which is significantly higher than bulk trade. The 50g small package of "Cooking Cinnamon" developed by a cross-border e-commerce company in Shenzhen, with selling points such as "sulfur-free fumigation" and "hand-peeled" marked with pictures and texts, combined with the experience video of the Japanese Internet celebrity "Wagashi Craftsman", has exceeded 20,000 pieces in a single month. This C-end penetration strategy has reversely pushed Japanese importers to adjust their procurement standards-the proportion of new arrivals at Yokohama Port in 2025 that require each box to be accompanied by an organic certification QR code has increased from 15% in 2020 to 62%.

4. Technical barriers and new challenges to green trade

The Japanese market is raising the threshold for sustainable entry. The Supply Chain Carbon Neutrality Act, which will be implemented in April 2025, requires importers to submit product carbon footprint reports, which poses a challenge to the wood drying process in traditional cinnamon processing. After a cooperative in Pu'er, Yunnan, introduced photovoltaic drying equipment, the carbon emissions per ton of cinnamon dropped from 380kg to 210kg, and obtained green premium procurement from Mitsui & Co. At the same time, the latest survey by the Japanese Consumer Affairs Agency showed that 67% of respondents were concerned about the irradiation sterilization of spices, which prompted the China Inspection and Quarantine Scientific Research Institute to develop "low-temperature plasma sterilization technology". The relevant equipment has been put into use in Fangchenggang Customs, and the microbial indicators of the treated cinnamon are better than the Japanese JAS standards.

5. Increased added value brought by cultural empowerment

Smart Chinese exporters have begun to explore the cultural narrative value of cinnamon. A Zhejiang trading company combined the record of "cinnamon leads fire back to the origin" in the Compendium of Materia Medica with the Japanese concept of "pre-disease conditioning", adopted Ukiyo-e style design on the packaging, and cooperated with the experience marketing of the Tokyo Kampo Exhibition, so that the terminal price of 200g specification products reached 9,800 yen (about 450 yuan), and the profit margin increased by 5 times compared with traditional raw material exports. A study by the Faculty of Agriculture of Kyoto University in 2024 confirmed that the flavor synergy between Chinese cinnamon and Japanese native pepper is significant. This academic endorsement has promoted Osaka food research and development companies to develop a new category of "cinnamon pepper compound seasoning". In the next three years, with the in-depth implementation of the rules of cumulation of origin in the RCEP agreement, China's cinnamon exports to Japan are expected to exceed US$150 million. However, the industry still needs to deal with two key issues: one is to establish a JAS (Japanese Agricultural and Forestry Standards) certification system covering the entire industry chain, and the other is to develop functional cinnamon products (such as hypoglycemic cinnamon extracts) for the Japanese elderly. Only by transforming our natural resource advantages into standard-setting capabilities can we gain lasting competitiveness in this most discerning market in the world.