Turning 110,000 Tons of Off-Spec Asahikawa Potatoes into Ice Cream—A Regional Revitalization Project Connecting the Dairy Crisis and Discarded Vegetables

On April 1, 2026, Iroenpitsu Co., Ltd., based in Asahikawa City, Hokkaido, announced a plan to open an "ice cream shop that draws people from all over the world" in front of Asahikawa Station. At a glance it looks like a story about opening a unique eatery, but behind it lies a serious problem -- the disposal of some 111,000 tons of off-spec potatoes a year in the Kamikawa district, and a crisis in a dairy industry facing a shortage of successors. A challenge to tie food-loss reduction and the regeneration of local agriculture together through the familiar product of ice cream has begun.

In the Kamikawa district alone, 110,000 tons are discarded per year -- the severity of the off-spec potato problem

The Kamikawa district of Hokkaido (around Asahikawa) is one of Hokkaido's leading potato production areas. Yet in that production area, fully 35.4% of the annual output of potatoes, a major farm product -- about 111,000 tons -- is excluded from the market as "off-spec."

Off-spec means those whose shape or size fails to meet market standards, those with blemishes, those too small, and the like. There's no problem with taste or nutritional value. Yet farmers, to dispose of these, in some cases pay up to 70 yen per kg. Paying a fee to throw away the crops they harvested -- this paradoxical reality strikes farm management directly and is one cause of accelerating farm abandonment.

Even nationally, the disposal volume of off-spec vegetables reaches about 2 million tons per year (fiscal 2020 estimate), but this figure isn't included in the food-loss statistics published by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. There's a current situation where the problem tends to be underestimated as "hidden food loss."Organizing the relationship between out-of-spec vegetables and food lossregarding, it's a challenge that has been debated for many years.

The dairy crisis: absence of successors and the milk-price problem

The sister and brother-in-law of Yuki Otawara, the representative of Iroenpitsu Co., Ltd., took over a ranch in December 2025 after serving in a regional-revitalization cooperation corps in Horonobe Town, Hokkaido. It's a case of taking over a ranch that had faced the crisis of closing for lack of a successor.

Japan's dairy industry faces a structural crisis. Soaring feed costs, sluggish milk prices, and a shortage of successors form a trinity squeezing management, and the number of dairy farmers nationwide has fallen about 30% over the past decade. Hokkaido is no exception, and the increase in closed ranches has serious effects on the local economy too.

The idea born of this backdrop is the business model of "offering ice cream made with local off-spec vegetables and dairy milk at an Asahikawa tourist spot."

Ice cream as a bridge: turning discarded ingredients into added value

If off-spec potatoes discarded at a disposal cost are used as an ice-cream ingredient, then far from a disposal cost of zero, revenue is generated for farmers as a purchase payment. Furthermore, using raw milk from local dairy farmers can contribute to stabilizing dairy management as well.

Asahikawa is a central city of inland Hokkaido and also a tourist destination home to Asahiyama Zoo. By developing a uniquely conceived ice cream shop in a highly draw-power location in front of the station, the aim is to broadcast the story of "off-spec vegetables x dairy x Hokkaido" nationwide and worldwide through tourists.

How to make use of off-spec vegetables in businessis typically conversion into processed products such as dried vegetables and vegetable snacks, but use in the form of ice cream has high appeal to consumers, a method that lets people experience "food-loss reduction" without it feeling pushy.

The potential as a regional-regeneration model

Iroenpitsu champions this project as three dreams: (1) developing new sales channels toward zero disposal of off-spec farm produce, (2) supporting dairy farmers short of successors, and (3) revitalizing Asahikawa's tourism and local economy.

What makes this effort worth noting is that it's designed as a sustainable business model, not a temporary support measure dependent on subsidies. Farmers eliminate disposal costs, dairy farmers secure a sales channel, and consumers enjoy an attractive local product. It's truly a challenge to realize a win-win structure in the field of food-loss reduction.

Similar ideas are sprouting across the country. An upcycling industry that "turns discarded vegetables into beautiful products" is growing -- restaurants and prepared-food shops using off-spec vegetables, conversion into crayons and cosmetics, and more. Among these, the Asahikawa project holds the potential to become a nationwide model as a distinctive case that ties together tourism, dairy, and agriculture in a composite way.

The need to shine a light on "hidden food loss"

The disposal of off-spec vegetables is "hidden food loss" not included in the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries' food-loss statistics. To achieve Japan's stated goal of "halving food loss by 2030," how to reduce this invisible disposal holds an important key.

Iroenpitsu's project is at the crowdfunding and business-plan stage at present, but there's hope that such locally originated ingenuity will grow into a practical model of food and agriculture SDGs. Carrying the sustainability of agriculture is not only policy and subsidies but such private-sector ideas and challenges.

The cost of food waste, estimated at 540 billion dollars worldwideToward reducing it, the answer that Japan's regional agriculture shows lies in "a shift in thinking that turns waste into value." We hope this small challenge starting from Asahikawa breathes new life into Japan's agriculture and food-loss countermeasures.

Source:Iroenpitsu Co., Ltd. press release (PR TIMES, April 1, 2026)／Jiji.com (April 1, 2026)