In 1883, our founder Keisuke Kobayashi started the business in Yokohama. Our history began with the export of Japanese mint grown in Hokkaido. After a while, we also started exporting other raw materials grown in Japan, including red peppers grown in Tochigi Prefecture and ginger grown in Shizuoka Prefecture.
And, we moved our head office to Kobe due to the Great Kanto Earthquake, which occurred in 1923.
In 1939, World War II broke out, and such supplies from Japan came to an end; therefore, we shifted our business from exports to imports.
The company became a wholesale trading company importing food products such as spices, herbs, nuts and dried fruits, from all over the world.
In terms of imports of spices, we have so far stayed in the industry’s leading position.
In 2011, the Kobe Spice Center was built to realize quality-first processing and develop a system that enables high-mix low-volume production, which has allowed us to build further trust with our customers.
In the same year, we also started dealing with retail products such as wine and olive oil.
While the economic environment is constantly changing, we are discovering and introducing products with high added value from all over the world so as to meet the diversifying needs for food.