Japanese marmalade is getting known to the world. (image via Shopify)

A Treasure from Ehime: Marmalade

YAWATAHAMA, Ehime – Ehime is a known prefecture for its different types of citrus. Due to its popularity with producing citrus, the prefecture is even named as the “Citrus Kingdom”.

Although Ehime is known for its citrus for a long time, but none of the people have yet to create citrus-based products. However, since a few years back, some businesswomen have been making products using citrus. They did it not only for the money, but to revitalize their hometowns as well. Local brands such as Nino’s Confiture and Atrium were first made due to their homes’ local harvest, which is none other than citrus.

Two sisters in their 60s started their ‘citrus business’, 8 years ago, that is in 2011. Yoriko and Seiko Ninomiya started making marmalade as their hobbies. The two sisters were working in the airline industry but they retired and started making marmalade. The marmalade soon became the talk of the town, as they got orders from friends and neighbors. And not long after, they got request from overseas.

Not only the Ninomiya sisters, another business woman named Miyuki Kokubu also sell marmalade. Her products even won awards at the Dalemain international festival over the years. She has only started her business in 2016, but she already found that she could extracts oil from citrus peel, which made no waste of the citrus fruit.

The business has made Japanese citrus known to the world. The three businesswomen were also able to hire local farmers and people to help them with the business. They are not only promoting Japan to the world, but also helping local people to make a living.

Source: https://japantoday.com/category/national/Spreading-the-joy-of-marmalade-across-the-sea-from-Ehime