Koi buying trip November 2020.
I first want to start with a massive thank you to Masaru Saito, Hirome Saito and Kosuke Saito of Shintaro Koi Farm for arranging much of the paperwork needed to actually get us out of the UK and into Japan. Without their help we would not have been able to come.
Another special thank you to our Shipper and friend, Kensuke who has also been amazing.
Relationships like these do not come easy and we appreciate all their help. The lunches…the Dinners and most importantly the KOI! Thank you!
The trip was a very different trip this time, it was so quiet in the mountains. I have been coming to Japan for the harvests for 27 years and this was one of the strangest! Even after the 2004 Earthquake we saw a lot more people here. With the internet and various messaging apps etc, the breeders have managed to sell a lot of stock. I found this trip that the cheaper end of the market was readily available and also the very high-end Koi were in good supply. I thought the middle standard of Koi was lower than usual. When we go round, we are hoping to find some really nice Koi that suit many peoples budget but the Koi we usually sell for around £800 were not as easy to find. It jumped from £250 Koi to like £1500 and not much in-between. That was not an issue for us as on the Autumn trip we pretty much are looking for the higher end Koi anyway, but maybe for the shop/website it will show.
The good thing about Japan though Is those Koi will soon be available again, so we are not worried, as always…the next trip is round the corner.
A lot of people have been emailing us about the Japan trips, and we just don’t know yet. There really isn’t any indication at all from here in Japan. The entire process of getting a business Visa to get here took me around 6 weeks and a few trips to the Embassy in Japan…
I cannot see this changing for at least 6 months. There is some talk of a shorter quarantine on arrival in Japan but again, cases are going up slightly in Japan so I am sure that will also be delayed. So even next Autumn looks suspect. Of course, when things do change, we will let everyone know.
Even though the lack of people here in the mountains the Koi breeders have done really well. Many have sold out and done good business which is really good. The big wholesalers still doing big business and its good to see. I guess there are still many Koi crazy people wanting to buy Koi all over the world.
Anyway, enough of that…
With the difficulties we experienced getting to Japan and the tests…and the quarantine… it’s still been one, if not the best trip we have done. We have sold over 20,000 Koi on this trip which is amazing numbers. We will just reach 400 boxes. Some coming to the UK and most going to America.
We have also sold some very high-quality Koi of all sizes, all the way up to 95cm. We have sourced a lot of Koi for our clients, some we did not but they will be still on the lists for the next trip in March. The high-end Koi are the reason we HAD to come to Japan. I need to be here to see these Koi in the flesh, as I have said before, if there is an issue on arrival, I cannot send the Koi back! Some of the Koi we have sold have been for many thousands of pounds/dollars, so it was Vital I come here to make sure the Koi were perfect for the client.
We also now have Koi being shipped to the Koitrips facility in New Jersey, so any American clients who looking for Koi then please get in touch, we have some really nice stuff going to the States, they start to arrive on the 15th of December. Some of our best stuff have ended up going to the states this trip, amazing Koi going to California where we hope to see them competing on the Show scene in America as soon as possible.
KoiTrips/Quality Nishikigoi Facility New Jersey.
The trip has been worth it and we have been amazed by how many people wanted Koi this trip. So a big thank you to everyone who bought from us this trip, thank you for the continued support and thank you to the new clients.
