Meros has a new team member! Welcome, Daijiro Hata! Daijiro joined us this summer and is already jumping into projects, visiting expos and attending farms demos in his home prefecture of Shiga.

Daijiro has a degree in Natural Sciences from Kyoto University and spent an additional year at the University of Guadalajara, Mexico studying agriculture.

His career has spanned diverse roles, allowing him to gain deep experience in both corporate and international development work. Before Meros he worked for development consulting company Padeco on international development projects, particularly in the Philippines. Previously in his career, he had been involved in global business development for agricultural non-woven fabric, including on-site demos to explore market entry potential in Indonesia, market research in Spain and was responsible for trade and export management with European customers, including optimizing route and vessel plans.

The common theme has always been international business development, trade and new markets and Meros was a chance for him to return to his core passion – food and agriculture.

“I have had a deep interest in food and agriculture since childhood. Even in elementary school, I loved growing vegetables like cucumbers and tomatoes in our garden during summer vacation. I think this deeply inspired me and I studied biology and agriculture in university. I have been developing my career in business development both in Japan and overseas, but my core interest has always been in food and agriculture.

“Meros is the ideal environment for me to develop deeper expertise in food and agriculture and put my experiences in new business development, trade and market research to use on a variety of exciting topics.”

“I was really excited to see that Meros’ work covers the entire agriculture supply chain in a international context, and I felt I could both pursue my passion in agriculture and also contribute the perspectives I have gained through my previous career experiences.”

Since joining Meros, Daijiro has already been putting his experience to use by becoming involved in our work in Colombia on rice industry development policy and investigating opportunities for new business and agri-tech start-up collaboration in key global agriculture sectors.

“I have experience working on JICA projects and I know I can contribute to Meros’ work with JICA and with other international agencies on international agricultural development challenges. In addition I hope I will be able to use my Spanish language skills in projects in Latin America where I can dig into local documents and interview local experts. Through Meros’ training program and support from my Team Meros colleagues, I am quickly learning new systematic research and analytical skills, and I plan to apply these skills to solving our clients’ challenges.”

Daijiro is extremely curious about new foods and cuisine and is always eager to try new restaurants with the team – something that is a challenge only when he is preparing for high-level competitions in weight training and body building – an inspiration to our team!

He is fluent in Japanese, English and Spanish.