Tokyo, March 8, 2018 – Rakuten Ragri, the agricultural service managed by Rakuten, Inc., will partner with Tanita Corporation to jointly develop original menus and products using vegetables provided by Ragri for Tanita’s “TANITA CAFE” business.
Ragri is an online community-supported agriculture (CSA) service in which individual farmers produce crops on the basis of orders received directly from consumers. The service allows farmers to earn a stable monthly income while also helping address labor shortage issues in the agricultural sector by supporting new agricultural workers. Vegetables supplied through the Ragri CSA are grown primarily by farmers who have acquired the Organic JAS certification and are engaged in specialized cultivation activities such as pesticide-free or reduced-pesticide farming. Other ongoing initiatives by Ragri include the processing of organic vegetables using Organic JAS-standard cleaning methods and the development of prepared salads and other products. The partnership with Tanita Corporation is the result of such initiatives, as well as the superb quality of Ragri products, which attracted the attention of Tanita Corporation.
Following “TANITA Shokudo,” a chain of restaurants offering healthy food to consumers, Tanita Corporation has embarked on a new business initiative in the form of “TANITA CAFE.” The new café is designed to encourage the development of customers’ “emotional health,” placing priority on customer “enjoyment” and “comfort.” “TANITA CAFE Yurakucho” will open in May 2018 as the flagship store and the first branch in Tokyo, and there are plans to open 100 such cafés* across Japan by FY2022 (end of March of 2023).
The first jointly-developed menu to be made available in the café will include salads containing a rich assortment of organic seasonal vegetables. The menu will be updated periodically, and Ragri and Tanita Corporation will continue working together to develop menus using seasonal vegetables from all seasons. There are also plans to develop individual products made with organic vegetables, such as prepared salads, to be sold in supermarkets or online.
Going forward, Ragri will continue striving to give even more consumers the opportunity to easily and healthily consume vegetables grown with care by independent producers.
* Stores will be operated in two formats—as franchises, or through menu provision.
