Oh every day 日々そうそう

Today you kan get Kaki in whole Europe which is imported from the south. Turkey, Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece. But in 1990s Kaki came from only Israel. .



Kaki does not originally grow in such desert areas like Israel. The tasty fruit belongs to Far East. In the late 60s, the Kibbutz in Israel got reportedly a great help from Japan which is organized by a semi governmental organization for developing countries. Young Japanese people are still dispatched to everywhere[note 1] .




Kaki is described as ''Diospyros kaki'' which is better known as the Japanese persimmon. Why? Because many cultivars are developed from the species in Japan through centuries. In Northern Hemisphere there are many Diospyros kinds. But except the species of Kaki, there are hardy other kinds for consumption [note 2].

How to cultivate Kaki? It should have been known in 19 century when the Japanese Kaki introduced to North and South America, also to Europa. Unfortunately no European thought then such eccentric fruits consumption. It remained inside Arboretums (tree garden). The re-start took place in late 1960s now as you know. The knowhow is spread from Israel to the near Middle East and further to Balkans and south European regions. Besides people has learnt it directly from Japan.







【Note】:
1. Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) was set in 1965 financed by the Government. It's volunteer activity through young generation who own each specialism that is helpful for developing countries. JICA belongs to the ministry of foreign Affair as a sub-organization.
2. China and Korea which are respectively no.1 / 2 of product quantity in the world might have own cultivars, but nowadays, there cultivars seem to be all Japanese origin just like ''rice'' .