Kanematsu Corporation (hereinafter “Kanematsu”) has acquired a stake in TOWING Co., Ltd. (hereinafter “TOWING”) through a third-party allotment of shares. Kanematsu will enhance collaboration with TOWING through the investment, aiming to drive initiatives for developing sustainable food supply chains together with business partners.
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TOWING engages in the development, manufacture, and sale of the high-performance biochar “Soratan”, as well as providing related technological services. In addition, it has launched the first project that leverages its patented carbon credit pre-order sales and creation business model (Japanese Patent No. 7138390) as part of its comprehensive initiatives aimed at addressing social issues.
Kanematsu possesses extensive global networks, expertise, and experience in the fields of agriculture and food, developed over many years in the trading business. Leveraging these strengths, we are determined to promote the green transformation as one of the key initiatives under integration 1.0, our three-year medium-term management plan launched in April 2024, with a priority area being “GX for Agriculture and Food.”
Since concluding a partnership agreement in July 2024, Kanematsu and TOWING have launched joint projects not only in Japan but also the U.S., Brazil, and Southeast Asia. The joint projects involve analyzing and evaluating Soratan’s positive effects on crop yield and quality, as well as on farmland carbon storage capacity and quality, along with examining the potential of promoting regenerative agriculture for biodiversity conservation. Primarily through carbon insetting* leveraging Soratan, we aim to contribute to the development of sustainable food production and procurement systems and to the reduction of GHG emissions across the entire supply chain.
* A strategy whereby the benefits of GHG emissions reduction and elimination efforts carried out within a supply chain are leveraged within the same supply chain (e.g., acquiring or retiring carbon credits created by producers, utilizing those credits to reduce product emissions). Antonym of carbon offsetting, which involves tapping into environmental value created outside of the supply chain (e.g., acquiring carbon credits created by other companies).
■ Overview of Soratan
Soratan is a soil amendment commercialized by integrating TOWING’s proprietary biochar preprocessing technology and microbial culture technology with technology developed by the National Agriculture and Food Research Organization. Soratan not only helps reduce GHG emissions by carbon fixation and promote effective use of locally-sourced unutilized biomass, which are benefits provided by regular biochar, but also improves soil health, reduces use of chemical fertilizers, facilitates the transition to organic agriculture, and enhances crop quality and yield, making it an innovative solution that is expected to contribute to regenerative agriculture as well. As biochar is usually alkaline, depending on the application volume, it may increase soil pH and cause stunted crop growth. But due to its more neutral pH, Soratan does not adversely affect crop growth.
【About TOWING】
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Name |
TOWING Co., Ltd. |
| Establishment | February 27, 2020 |
| President | Kohei Nishida |
| Address |
Nagoya University Facilty of Incubation, 1 Furocho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya-shi, Aichi, 464-8601 Japan |
| Business |
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| Website | https://towing.co.jp/pages/en |
【Contact】
Public Relations Section, Kanematsu Corporation TEL: +81-3-6747-5000 https://www.kanematsu.co.jp/en/inquiry/