McHale Engineering has enjoyed a business relationship with Japan for more than 15 years, selling balers and wrappers to farmers and contractors in the region. That relationship started in the late 1980s when the company, based in Ballinrobe, Co Mayo, began exporting bale wrappers to the region through a small local importer.

As the McHale range expanded, and with the arrival of the baler and Fusion range, that Japanese company willingly handed over the business to some bigger operators. Nowadays, the McHale range is imported into Japan by three separate companies, all of which are considered to be trading houses, or sogo shosha in the Japanese business sense.

The term sogo shosha, or trading company, signifies a business entity or philosophy that is unique to Japan. These companies trade in a wide range of products and materials. They are often used to link suppliers, manufacturers, and distributors of one industry. In the past they have acted as investment banks and private equities.

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These sogo shosha traders are at the heart of Japan’s global economic efforts. They are reported to handle about half of the country’s exports and two-thirds of its imports. They trade in both commodities and finished goods.

The seven largest sogo shosha are Mitsubishi Corporation, Mitsui & Co., Sumitomo Corporation, Itochu, Marubeni, Toyota Tsusho and Sojitz. One of McHale’s three importers is IDEC, which imports and distributes a range of farm machinery from its base on the north island of Hokkaido. These include Lemken and some Kuhn products in addition to the McHale range.

Cornes Ag Corporation is another of McHale’s trading partners in Japan and it is also based on Hokkaido Island. This is a diverse trading house that also trades in luxury goods, including high-end cars such as Ferrari and Maserati, and Waterford Crystal.

A third importer is MSK Farm Machinery Corporation. This trading company includes Claas, Massey Ferguson and Fendt among its lines, as well as the McHale range. This company is based in the Saitama Prefecture in central Japan.

Japanese trading houses are good to deal with, according to Martin McHale, sales and marketing director of McHale Engineering. “They have very precise needs and expect that the machines will arrive as agreed. They are always willing to work with us as manufacturers to deal with any local operational issues. Their focus is on getting things right, rather than looking for a reason to blame or not pay for the goods supplied.”

The three separate McHale distributors in Japan work without any conflict as they tend to specialise in different product sectors. Hokkaido Island is a livestock producing area and there is good demand for the Fusion there, according to Martin McHale. The demand is more for the variable chamber balers and wrappers in the Saitama Prefecture, which is known as a rich farmland area of Japan.