Dah Sing Bank partners with Japan’s Norinchukin to promote Japanese food, agri products

Dah Sing’s board has also appointed Junji Mori and Yuichi Tashita of Norinchukin as managers.

Dah Sing Bank has entered into a business cooperation agreement with Norinchukin Bank to promote Japanese food and agricultural products to Hong Kong, Macau, and Mainland China.

The cooperation also includes banking businesses of both parties in the Greater Bay Area.

Norinchukin is one of the largest financial institutions in Japan, established for cooperative members in the agriculture, fishery and forestry sectors in Japan.

The board of Dah Sing Financial Holdings have also announced the appointment of Junji Mori, general manager of the food & agri planning division, as a Non-Executive Director; and Yuichi Tashita, chief representative of the Hong Kong (China) Representative Office of Norinchukin, as alternate director to Mori, both with effect from 7 July.

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According to data released by the Japanese government, the value of exports of food, farm, forestry and marine products to Mainland China surged 35.2% to US$1.93b (JPY 222.4b) in 2021, whilst exports to Hong Kong increased by 6% to US$1.9b.

This surge in exports from Japan alongside rising income in China underlines strong appetite and preference for Japanese food and agricultural products, said Yasuhiro Umeda, managing executive officer of Norinchukin.

“With rising income levels and increasingly affluent lifestyles in Mainland China, we believe the outlook is robust for growth in an increasingly diverse range of Japanese foods exports,” Umeda said.

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Harold and Derek Wong, managing directors and chief executives at Dah Sing, said that there are also opportunities for the two banks to collaborate in different business areas including corporate banking, business matching, personal banking, wealth management, advisory services, ESG and fintech.