Ginoza Village on the northwestern coast of Okinawa’s main island boasts it has succeeded to become a village known for its strawberries.

The Ginoza Road Station reports that it sold 3,200 packs of fresh strawberries from Dec. 2015 through Mar. 2016, which is almost three times more than during the same period a year ago when it sold only 1,200 packs.

Also strawberry picking offered to visitors is going very well with bookings full in March and mostly full in April. Ginoza officials say about 6,000 visitors take part in strawberry picking every year in the village.

The village has also employed a pastry chef at the road station since last October to create and serve sweets made with fresh strawberries from Ginoza.

Basically, the strawberry sweets offered at the road station are non-standard shape but absolutely sweet, and the shop has been able to serve the sweets at reasonable prices while securing good prices for local farmers.

Satoru Yamashiro, the pastry chef at the Ginoza Road Station, says, “It has been a very good opportunity for me. I don’t have to mind about the cost of the strawberries, and they are fresh because they are grown locally.”

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