Enjoy your retirement Suzuki-san!
Enjoy your retirement Suzuki-san!
Many DSF Members will be familiar with our colleague, Yoshinori Suzuki (Suzuki-san), General Manager for Global Dairy Relations, Milk Supply Chain at J-Milk (Japan Dairy Association) who we are sadly saying farewell to this month as he retires. Two years ago, Suzuki-san coordinated the process for J-Milk to join the DSF as the aggregating member for the Japan dairy sector. J-Milk consists of 23 dairy organization members including the Japan Dairy Council (the dairy farm production organization), and the Japan Dairy Industry Association (the dairy processor organization), thus covering the entire Japanese milk supply chain, accounting for 95% of the milk produced in Japan (approx. 7 million tons annually).
After graduating with a degree in Veterinary Science, Suzuki-san played a key role in Meiji’s global business, serving as Managing Director at Meiji Dairy Australasia Pty., Ltd. for many years. More recently, he was able to lend his considerable experience and knowledge to J-Milk, helping it play a more active international role.
Suzuki-san has been our key contact at J-Milk and the DSF Secretariat would like to thank him for his many contributions to the DSF, including participation in numerous DSF member meetings and Community of Interest groups, while always asking insightful questions and contributing important points to discussions – despite most zoom calls often being held at 3 or 4am Japan time! The DSF is also extremely grateful for his dedication to translating a wide range of the DSF materials into Japanese in order to help keep his Japanese colleagues informed – all free of charge! We wish him all the very best for a long and happy retirement where he will no longer need to worry about issues such as materiality, translations, and DSF reporting!
At this important transition time, the DSF also extends a very warm welcome to Mr. Masato Saito, who we are pleased to hear will be picking up the DSF responsibilities and will build on the great foundation that Suzuki-san has built. We look forward to continuing our close working relationship with Japan’s dairy sector.