“I feel sorry for anyone born in June. Almost no June birthday cake is lucky enough to be one of the rare few made with domestic strawberries.”
An Okinawan pastry chef broached the subject in the following way.
“Chilled strawberries in shortcakes are great. However, I would much prefer to line up beautiful domestic strawberries on the tops of cakes.
From May to November, the production of strawberries all over Japan drops dramatically and imported strawberries are all you can get your hands on.
At this difficult time if Oya could grow strawberries it would put a smile on many a face. ”

As you may know, I am not one for this kind of talk.
Kodaira Kogyo was deep in thought about whether or not to start growing strawberries in summer, however, while on a business trip to Okinawa, amid talks and ’awamori’(strong Okinawan rice liquor) the answer that was reached was “Let’s just do it!”
From there the wheels were set in motion.

Upon returning to the company in Utsunomiya, approval from the board of directors was granted, and the growing of summer strawberries promptly began.

We have spent our working lives with heavy machinery like excavator cranes and bulldozers, suddenly choosing to grow strawberries was always going to raise eyebrows. In the eyes of Kodaira Kogyo, the construction industry is a living breathing industry.
“How can the construction industry help with the promotion of Oya?” Is the question we brought to city hall which may have acted as the spark for this great change, but it was after this we then opened up our minds to the idea of growing summer strawberries. It brings me joy to think that people far away can be made happy by what we are doing here in our new agricultural steps.

Having said that, when it comes to strawberry growing, we are still amateurs. We asked CDP Frontier to learn about strawberry cultivation for a full year, and since then, 2018 has seen summer strawberry growing in our greenhouses. Of course, there are many things on the road ahead that we must face, but we look forward to continuing to face them all.