Weak consumer sentiment and surging prices for imported raw materials

「In the food industry surrounding our Group, demand from the food-service and tourism industries is showing signs of a gradual recovery, while contactless sales and services through e-commerce sites and delivery services are expanding. However, the business environment remains challenging, with small and medium-sized enterprises becoming increasingly polarized relative to large companies amid consumers' growing budget-consciousness due to rising prices, labor shortages and logistics issues.」

「At the same time, in addition to developments in the global situation, including prolonged international geopolitical uncertainty and tariff issues following the transition to a new government in the United States, the fact that wage increases are limited to large companies, repeated price increases for energy resources such as crude oil, raw materials and selling prices, and the trend in the yen's value have kept living costs elevated and continue to make the economic outlook highly uncertain. In the food industry surrounding our Group, demand from the food-service and tourism industries is showing signs of a gradual recovery, while contactless sales and services through e-commerce sites and delivery services are expanding. However, the business environment remains challenging, as consumers are becoming increasingly budget-conscious amid rising prices and due to labor shortages and logistics issues.」

「At the same time, in addition to developments in the global situation, including prolonged international geopolitical uncertainty and the transition to a new government in the United States, the fact that wage increases are limited to large companies, repeated price increases for energy resources such as crude oil, raw materials and selling prices, and the trend in the yen's value continue to make the economic outlook highly uncertain.」

「At the same time, the fact that wage increases are limited to large companies, prolonged international geopolitical uncertainty, the slowdown in China's economy, repeated price increases for energy resources such as crude oil, raw materials and selling prices, and the weakening yen continue to make the economic outlook highly uncertain.」

「In the food industry surrounding our Group, demand from the food-service and tourism industries is showing signs of a gradual recovery, while contactless sales and services through e-commerce sites and delivery services are expanding. However, the business environment remains challenging because consumers are becoming increasingly budget-conscious amid rising prices and due to logistics issues.」

「In the food industry surrounding our Group, demand from the food-service and tourism industries is showing signs of a gradual recovery, while contactless sales and services through e-commerce sites and delivery services are expanding. However, the business environment remains challenging, as consumers are becoming increasingly budget-conscious amid rising prices and the quality of agricultural products has declined because of heat damage during the summer.」

「In the food industry surrounding our Group, demand from the food-service and tourism industries is showing signs of a gradual recovery, while contactless sales and services through e-commerce sites and delivery services are expanding. However, the business environment remains challenging, as consumers are becoming increasingly budget-conscious amid rising prices and the quality of agricultural products has declined because of heat damage caused by the exceptionally hot summer.」

「In the food industry surrounding our Group, demand from the food-service and tourism industries is showing signs of a gradual recovery, while contactless sales and services through e-commerce sites and delivery services are expanding. However, the business environment remains challenging, as consumers are becoming increasingly budget-conscious amid rising prices.」

「However, changes in the employment environment and broad-based price increases caused by surging labor, raw material, energy and logistics costs could have a significant impact on personal consumption, potentially leaving the domestic economy in a markedly uncertain situation.」

「During the nine-month consolidated period under review (1 April 2022 to 31 December 2022), Japan's economy remained highly uncertain, owing to the renewed spread of COVID-19 caused by new variants, the prolonged Ukraine issue, repeated price increases for energy resources such as crude oil, raw materials and selling prices, and the weakening yen.」

「At the same time, the prolonged Ukraine issue, repeated price increases for energy resources such as crude oil, raw materials and selling prices, and the weakening yen continue to make the economic outlook highly uncertain.」

「Meanwhile, the outlook for the economy remained highly uncertain owing to factors including the impact of the situation in Ukraine and lockdowns resulting from China's zero-COVID policy, surging prices for energy resources such as crude oil and for raw materials and products, and the yen's continued depreciation.」

「Meanwhile, since around spring 2021, the company has continued to face a situation in which it has had no choice but to raise prices for its products in response to surging raw material prices and logistics costs.」

「In the food industry surrounding the group, under the state of emergency declared in response to COVID-19, more people continued to work from home and consumers continued to refrain from non-essential outings. Meanwhile, the launch of takeaway services by many food-service businesses broadened consumers' options.」

「Meanwhile, the government was pursuing unprecedented economic measures and signs of a temporary recovery had emerged, but the outlook for the economy remained highly uncertain, including because a third state of emergency was declared in April 2021.」

「During the consolidated fiscal year, the Japanese economy continued to slow rapidly owing to the global impact of COVID-19, which continued to have a substantial effect on employment and worsened consumer sentiment regarding personal consumption. Meanwhile, the government pursued unprecedented economic measures and signs of a temporary recovery emerged, but the outlook for the economy remained highly uncertain, including because a second state of emergency was declared in January 2021.」

「During the nine months ended 31 December 2020, the Japanese economy continued to slow rapidly owing to the global impact of COVID-19, which continued to have a substantial effect on employment and worsened consumer sentiment regarding personal consumption. Meanwhile, although the government was pursuing unprecedented economic measures, the outlook for the end of the pandemic remained unclear, making the outlook for the economy highly uncertain.」

「During the six months ended 30 September 2020, the Japanese economy continued to slow rapidly owing to the global impact of COVID-19, which continued to have a substantial effect on employment and worsened consumer sentiment regarding personal consumption. Meanwhile, the outlook for the end of the pandemic remained unclear, making the outlook for the economy highly uncertain.」

「During the first quarter of the fiscal year ending March 2021 (1 April 2020 to 30 June 2020), the Japanese economy continued to slow rapidly owing to the global impact of COVID-19, which had a substantial effect on employment and significantly worsened consumer sentiment regarding personal consumption, making the outlook for the economy highly uncertain.」

「In the food industry surrounding the group, consumer awareness of food safety and health in food has increased, while the operating environment remains challenging owing to factors including stagnating consumer demand following the consumption tax increase, higher raw material prices caused by adverse weather and successive natural disasters, rising logistics costs amid labor shortages, and the impact of COVID-19 on production, distribution, and consumption.」

「In the food industry surrounding the group, consumer awareness of food safety and health in food has increased, while the operating environment remains challenging owing to factors including stagnating consumer sentiment following the consumption tax increase, higher raw material prices caused by adverse weather and successive natural disasters, and rising logistics costs amid labor shortages.」

「In the food industry surrounding the group, consumer awareness of food safety and health in food has increased, while the operating environment remains challenging owing to factors including higher raw material prices caused by adverse weather and successive natural disasters, rising logistics costs amid labor shortages, concerns about higher prices for daily necessities and other goods in anticipation of a consumption tax increase, and consumers' inclination to economize.」

「In the food industry surrounding the group, consumer awareness of food safety and health in food has increased, while the operating environment remains challenging owing to factors including higher raw material prices caused by adverse weather and successive natural disasters, rising logistics costs amid labor shortages, and consumers' inclination to economize.」

「In the food industry surrounding the group, consumer awareness of food safety and health in food has increased, while the operating environment remains challenging owing to factors including higher raw material prices caused by adverse weather and natural disasters, rising logistics costs amid labor shortages, and consumers' inclination to economize.」

「In the food industry surrounding the group, consumer awareness of food safety and health in food has increased, while the operating environment remains challenging owing to factors including higher raw material prices caused by adverse weather, rising logistics costs amid labor shortages, and consumers' inclination to economize.」

「In the food industry surrounding the group, consumer awareness of food safety and health in food has increased, while the operating environment remains challenging owing to factors including higher raw material prices caused by adverse weather and rising logistics costs amid labor shortages.」

「Although consumer awareness of food safety has increased, the recovery in personal consumption has been limited. In addition to surging raw material prices and poor domestic agricultural production caused by typhoon damage, intensifying competition among companies is putting pressure on earnings, and the operating environment remains challenging.」

「In the food industry surrounding the group, consumer awareness of food safety and health in food has increased, while the operating environment remains challenging owing to factors including higher raw material prices and rising logistics costs amid labor shortages.」

「In the food industry surrounding the group, consumer awareness of food safety and health in food has increased, while many consumers also seek affordability and convenience in food because of concerns about the future, including social security, and rising consumer prices. The operating environment remains challenging.」

「In the food industry surrounding the group, consumer awareness of food safety and health in food has increased, while many consumers continue to seek affordability and convenience in food, and the operating environment remains challenging.」

「Although consumer awareness of food safety has increased, the recovery in personal consumption has been limited. In addition to surging raw material prices and poor domestic agricultural production caused by typhoon damage, intensifying competition among companies is putting pressure on earnings, and the operating environment remains challenging.」

「In the food industry surrounding the group, consumer awareness of food safety and health in food has increased, but personal consumption has yet to recover. In addition, the operating environment remains challenging, owing to factors including surging raw material prices and poor domestic agricultural production caused by typhoon damage.」

「In the food industry surrounding the group, consumer awareness of food safety and health in food has increased, but personal consumption has yet to recover. In addition, the operating environment remains challenging, owing to factors including surging raw material prices.」

「In the food industry surrounding the group, consumer awareness of food safety has increased and major supermarkets have been pursuing initiatives to expand the organic market, but personal consumption has yet to recover. In addition, the operating environment remains challenging, owing to factors including surging prices for imported raw materials.」

「Personal consumption remained sluggish, with the recovery in consumer sentiment delayed by an uncertain outlook. In addition, the operating environment remained challenging, owing to factors including surging prices for imported raw materials.」