Yuzu has been trending in the United States for a few years now. Michelin-starred chefs, craft breweries, and foodies across the country pay a premium for the hard-to-find fruit. All the while, in Japan, yuzu has been a staple for centuries. The country is one of the top producers and consumers of yuzu, growing about 27,000 tons a year. But strict importation regulations keep yuzu from Japanese producers, like Senkoji Farms, out of the United States, leaving fans to depend on the few stateside producers, like Flavors by Bhumi. But growing yuzu in the US, especially on the East Coast, comes with its challenges. We visited both farms to see how yuzu in Japan compares to yuzu in the US and to understand why it's so expensive here.
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00:0027,000 tons of yuzu are grown here in Japan every year.
00:07Compare that to here in the U.S., where there are only a handful of yuzu farms growing a fraction of that.
00:14The number of yuzu menu items in the U.S. grew 33% between 2016 and 2021.
00:21And a French flavor company named Yuzu 2025's Flavor of the Year.
00:26I think chefs really love how different it is from a regular lemon or a lime or an orange.
00:32With this kind of supply imbalance, countries will typically strike an international trade deal.
00:38But none of Japan's yuzu bounty will reach the U.S. legally.
00:43And because there's not much fresh yuzu grown in the U.S., prices for the fruit have skyrocketed to around $20 a pound.
00:52So if Japan has so much yuzu, why can't it meet the U.S. demand?
00:56And why is American yuzu so expensive?
01:03I have been going to Japan a long time, so I love, you know, the citrus.
01:07Robbie Cook is the executive chef of Coral and Wakase in New York City.
01:13I do a smoked salt with the yuzu juice on that.
01:16Right now, wintertime, goes very well with the wild yellowtail.
01:19So it's cooking it in a broth, into the ponzu.
01:23Throughout his career, he's been able to compare Japanese and domestic yuzu.
01:28The ones from Japan have a little more sweetness and that orangey flavor compared to, like, lemony flavor.
01:35The thing that's nice about getting from Japan is they're, like, really massive.
01:40So you get much more surface area.
01:42You can peel your own skins, freeze them, and save for a later date.
01:46Right now, the only legal way to experience fresh Japanese yuzu is by leaving the U.S.
01:54Here in Japan, it's everywhere.
01:56I think it's one of the most famous yuzu.
02:06St. Corchi Farms in Corchi Prefecture sells its fresh fruit for as little as 10 cents a pop.
02:12In the past, its yuzu has gone for over $3.
02:1652% of yuzu grown in Japan comes from the Corchi Prefecture.
02:33Sashisen Koji took over his family's 10-acre citrus farm when he was 31.
02:39Some of the yuzu trees here are more than 100 years old.
02:44Only a few fruits will be high enough quality to sell whole.
02:54The most expensive form.
02:56Sashisen Koji took over $3.
03:01Sashisen Koji took over $3.
03:05Sashisen Koji took over $3.
03:08Sashisen Koji took over $3.
03:13The rest will be juiced and the peels used for essential oils.
03:17Sashisen Koji farm separates the yuzu intended for sale from the yuzu intended for juicing and sorts it by size and quality.
03:35Sashisen Koji was developed from the vine.
03:36Sashisen Koji took over $3.
03:38Sashisen Koji took over $3.
03:41and they're going through the same way.
03:45There are three people in there,
03:49and they're going to take care of them with their hands,
03:53and they're going to take care of their wounds,
03:55and they're going to take care of their wounds.
03:58Then, they're going to take care of the camera
04:01and take care of their wounds.
04:07One blemish too many can disqualify a fruit
04:10from being sold whole.
04:12The fruit of the fruit of the fruit of the fruit
04:15is the fruit of the fruit of the fruit.
04:18The fruit of the fruit is 5,
04:19and the fruit is 6.
04:21So, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.
04:26This fruit is very beautiful, but it's not a problem.
04:32What do you think of the fruit of the fruit?
04:36The fruit of the fruit of the fruit of the fruit is
04:38the fruit of the fruit of the fruit.
04:41I think the fruit of the fruit is a beautiful fruit.
04:45Japan is known for its luxury fruit,
04:48which prioritizes a perfect aesthetic above all else.
04:52These premium pieces can be sold at a much higher price
04:55than the average offering.
04:58To keep every fruit as pretty as possible,
05:01Sashi and his team are full, harvest by hand.
05:04Sashi says, current technology doesn't take the yuzu trees' huge thorns into account,
05:17which can damage the fruit, but he has hopes for a more automation.
05:23future.
05:24Sashi says, current technology doesn't take the yuzu trees' huge thorns into account,
05:30which can damage the fruit, but he has hopes for a more automated future.
05:35About four out of Senkoji farms' ten acres are dedicated to yuzu.
05:49The fruit accounts for 40% of sales, so it's important to keep it as healthy as possible.
05:55But the question of why all this yuzu from Japan won't legally make it to the US
06:01can be answered in part by this imperfect green piece of fruit.
06:05Sashi says, this is the only way to the fruit of the fruit of the fruit.
06:10If you can't find the fruit of the fruit of the fruit,
06:12you can't be able to find the fruit of the fruit of the fruit.
06:17But citrus tristesa virus isn't the only threat to the fruit of the fruit.
06:24to America's $3 billion citrus industry.
06:28Another infection, citrus greening disease, was first detected in 2005.
06:33Since then, citrus production in Florida has plummeted 75%.
06:39The disease is incurable.
06:41Once a tree is infected, the only way to deal with it is to destroy it.
06:46Some markets, like the European Union, do allow yuzu imports from Japan
06:51under strict conditions that keep prices sky high.
06:55One German sushi restaurant told Business Insider
06:58it purchased a case of 12 Japanese yuzu for 7 euros apiece.
07:04The United States, on the other hand, does not allow any imports of fresh yuzu from Japan.
07:10It might be touchy, but you know, I do believe some chefs are getting from Japan.
07:16Records from the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
07:20show only rare instances of smuggled yuzu, the most recent being in 2016.
07:26But these records only tell us when smuggled yuzu was found.
07:31To start the process of lifting the ban, a trading partner would first have to request market access,
07:36something the USDA told BI hasn't happened yet.
07:40Fresh yuzu seekers in the States must buy their fruit from one of the few U.S. producers
07:45at the family-run orchard, Flavours by Bumi.
07:49But local-grown supply is limited, making it expensive.
07:53Flavours by Bumi sells its yuzu for about $20 a pound, compared to Sengorju Farm's $2.60.
08:01To the best of our knowledge, we are the only growers of the yuzu or yuzu in general in the Northeast.
08:11Nobody else does it.
08:13There wasn't a choice to grow it in New Jersey. We live here.
08:16So there wasn't anywhere else to grow it.
08:19Since filming with BI, Flavours by Bumi has moved its East Coast production to Pennsylvania.
08:25Seema, Vivek, and their daughter Simran are the family behind the business.
08:30I'm 16 years old, and sometimes one of them says,
08:34oh, the yuzu are like our firstborns because they were around before I was.
08:37So yes, I have been surrounded by citrus pretty much my whole life.
08:41The Moloch started growing yuzu 20 years ago,
08:44but they had to work out some kinks before starting their business in 2017.
08:49We did put a couple of trees in the ground outside. They promptly died.
08:55There was no information available 20 years ago when we first started working with the yuzu.
09:01After tinkering around for a good decade, we decided to go commercial
09:07and started working with Michelin-star restaurants and have been doing so for the last seven years now.
09:13Because the East Coast climate isn't ideal for growing yuzu,
09:17a greenhouse was pivotal to the company's success.
09:20We can control the climate, the feeding, the beneficial insects, the nutrition, everything is controlled.
09:28The greenhouse also adds a layer of protection from diseases and pests.
09:33At the same time, greenhouse space is flavoured by Bumi's biggest roadblock to increasing supply.
09:39The access to good greenhouse space is always a challenge,
09:44because we can't expand without building greenhouses.
09:48There's always this challenge to find the right land, the right space to do all this.
09:54Scaling requires more labour from Simran, the farm's resident crafting expert.
09:59We have close to about, I would say, 3,000 to 4,000 trees.
10:03Since yuzu trees grown from seed take about 18 years to start producing fruit,
10:08most new yuzu trees, even in Japan, are created through grafting.
10:14The process involves attaching a budding yuzu stem to the root system of a different, easier-to-grow citrus tree.
10:21Essentially, the way a successful graft works is you want the original tree to absorb the graft
10:27and then be able to grow that tree going further.
10:31You don't want it to continue growing its own self, per se.
10:35This is a grafted yuzu tree.
10:38This part right here is the original plant, and this is where the graft was done, right here.
10:45This graft was done about two years ago, and the tree is already producing fruit,
10:51but it will still be a few years before it's fully grown.
10:55These are definitely going to take a bunch of time, somewhere between another seven to eight years,
11:01to get somewhere along that size or maybe even along this size.
11:04Growing enough fruit is one thing, but providing quality fruit is another.
11:10Fresh yuzu does not have a very long shelf life.
11:14A couple of weeks at best, when it's fully ripe, because it tends to lose its juice content
11:19and tends to start getting drier in nature.
11:22So even if they could import it, many chefs would still pay a premium for domestic yuzu,
11:28especially when it's grown right next door.
11:31I source locally, like, they tend to be much fresher here, you know, from travel time.
11:36You know, Vivek's just such a great guy, like, I'd rather support him and then always use his citrus, which is great.
11:43Chef Robby was one of the Moloch's very first customers, even before they established their business.
11:49I think Vivek's is more comparable to Japan, especially later in the season when they do get bigger
11:56and the more orange comes out to it.
11:58Robby says frozen yuzu can't compare with the flavour of the fresh fruit.
12:03This we can buy all year round, stays frozen. Similar flavour profile, but I'd say less floral notes, less freshness.
12:11And like I said, the juice tends to be, like, really punchy.
12:16But for Japan's yuzu farmers, juicing is one of the only ways to access the US market.
12:22Yuzu juice can be imported from Japan because processing removes the pathogens, diseases and pests that whole foods carry.
12:30At the Japan Agricultural Cooperative's processing centre, where Senkoji farms and other producers juice their yuzu,
12:36ten squeezing machines are kept behind glass.
12:40The skins are processed with a slicer.
12:52The skins are processed with a slicer.
12:55Yuzu cocktails, sauces and seasonings might feel trendy in the US, but the citrus goes back hundreds of years in Japan.
13:14My favourite thing is the yuzu bath that in Japan you can take on winter solstice.
13:31The cultural significance that exists in Japan doesn't exist over here.
13:36According to Data Central's menu adoption cycle, yuzu is in the adoption stage, which is all about growing an ingredients fan base.
13:45And the world's zest for yuzu seems to be increasing.
13:49Monin, a French flavour company, has named yuzu the 2025 flavour of the year.
13:55Monin has a history of predicting trends and influencing menus around the world.
14:00And market segments like the yuzu-based sauce ponzu and yuzu essential oil are expected to grow.
14:06While it's safe to say it's a trend in the US, Flavours by Bhoomi seems to be making a bet that yuzu is here to stay.
14:17The Marlux are currently expanding their business to California.
14:21We have close to about, I would say, another 10,000 trees in California of different varieties.
14:28This way, the company can shorten the travel time and provide even fresher fruit to chefs on the West Coast.
14:35We would love to process at some point in the future.
14:39Right now, we are just producing fresh fruit and supplying directly to our clients and that's it.
14:46The citrus has a way to go before ubiquity outside of Japan.
14:50But it seems to be a matter of time.
14:54Yuzu greenhouse.
14:57Shot 15. Action.
15:00One, two, three. Action.
15:04Take 20.
15:06Take 20.
15:07One, two, three. Action.
15:11One, two, three.
15:16Nothing.
15:18Let's do it.
15:19Nothing.
15:20No.
15:21The purpose is to go for it.
15:23No, no.
15:24It's been a matter of time.
15:26No.
15:27The purpose is to go for it.
15:28We have to get a couple of times.
15:30Don't know if you're going for it.
15:31We need to make a hearing loss.
15:33Don't know if you don't want to.
15:35No.