Last week, together with our UK partner Kinetic Cubed we coordinated a delegation of leading Northern Ireland food and drink companies to Japan to explore how automation, robotics and advanced manufacturing are being applied across the Japanese food industry.
The programme was built around FOOMA Japan, the country’s leading exhibition for food machinery, food technology and manufacturing innovation. Alongside the exhibition, we arranged behind-the-scenes plant visits and meetings with some of Japan’s most respected food and drink manufacturers, including GLICO (confectionery and dairy products), Kagome Co., Ltd.(vegetable-based foods and beverages), KEWPIE Corporation (mayonnaise, sauces and prepared foods), Ajinomoto Co., Inc. (seasonings, foods and amino science) and X Frontier by Sagawa (automated logistics and distribution).
The delegation also met with robotics and automation specialists helping drive innovation in Japanese manufacturing, including Kawada Robotics Corporation (collaborative humanoid robotics), RT Corporation (AI robotics and food factory automation) and Yaskawa Motoman (industrial robotics and factory automation).
The result was a valuable week of market insight, technical learning and direct exposure to the operational thinking shaping the future of food and drink manufacturing in Japan. The programme also provided practical lessons that Northern Ireland’s food and beverage sector can take forward in areas such as factory automation, robotics, process efficiency, logistics and advanced manufacturing.
We would like to sincerely thank all participating companies, our host companies in Japan, and especially Jonathan Birnie, Northern Ireland Food and Drink Association – NIFDA, and Invest Northern Ireland – Asia Pacific for their support throughout the programme.
At La Manga, we continue to build bridges between Japan and international companies, creating opportunities for learning, collaboration and future business development across the food, drink, technology and manufacturing sectors.
