Japan Post Co. will launch a cold storage express parcel service to India later this month amid growing demand for fresh Japanese food among local and Japanese residents in the South Asian country.
The service will begin next Thursday with the help of India Post, under an agreement signed between the two postal service providers on the occasion of their nations' summit in India last September, according to the mail service unit of Japan Post Holdings Co.
Chilled and frozen boxes weighing up to 15 kilograms can be delivered within 80 hours, Japan Post said, adding that addressees will receive parcels at India Post's foreign post office in Delhi — unlike Cool EMS parcels in other countries which are directly shipped to a person's address.
Following the summit, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the collaboration between the two postal service providers, saying in a statement "we are going to introduce a Cool Box Service so that the Japanese people living in India can directly get their favorite food from Japan."
Japan is the third-largest investor in India, pouring $4.7 billion into the country in the fiscal year to March 2017 — up more than 80 percent from the previous year — according to the Indian government. The number of Japanese companies and residents in India stood at more than 1,300 and over 9,000 respectively as of October 2016, Japanese government data shows.
Since 2013, Japan Post has extended the speedy cool parcel service to France, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and Vietnam due to growing popularity overseas of Japanese foods such as fishery products and fruit.