There could be no better time to visit Japan and the 23-day farming tour itinerary covers firstly Fukuoka, Nagasaki, Kumamoto and Beppu on Kyushu Island then Hiroshima, Osaka, Kyoto, Nagoya, Takayama, Matsumoto, Nagano, Hachimantai and Tokyo on Honshu Island. Japan has a population of over 122 million people living on an archipelago of thousands of islands, the main four being Hokkaido, Honshu, Kyushu and Shikoku comprising about 97% of Japan’s land area with only 20% suitable for cultivation. Rice paddies occupy most of the countryside while livestock raising is a minor activity except for the high-quality and high-cost Kobe beef. The economies of Japan and Australia are both intrinsically trade linked and as the tour includes many on-farm and technical visits the tour cost may well qualify as a tax deductible expense. However, it is not all work and no play as the tour includes leisure and sightseeing to provide a well-rounded itinerary including many of Japan’s major tourist attractions. Japan is the second largest green tea producer in the world after China and Japan’s meat market is the third largest in the world (after the USA and China), estimated to be worth AUD$83 billion in 2023. Japanese consumers eat nearly 20% more meat than they did 20 years ago and this has created increased opportunities for imported beef, which now makes up half of the market. Australia supplies more than 50% of Japan’s total grain-fed beef imports. Demand for lamb in Japan has remained relatively flat although large Japanese retailers are starting to carry lamb in their meat sections. Fishing is most important and Japan is ranked second in the world behind China in tonnage of fish caught. Prior to 2018 Tokyo’s Tsukiji fish market was the world’s largest. Japan has more than 2,000 fishing ports and is one of the world’s few whaling nations attracting international condemnation for its research whaling in the oceans surrounding Antarctica. Traditionally sumo wrestling is Japan’s national sport while baseball is currently the most popular spectator sport closely followed by soccer. Japan has one of the most successful soccer teams in Asia. Golf is also popular as is Rugby Union and their men’s National Rugby Team the Brave Blossoms is coached, once again, by Eddie Jones. Japanese people are very friendly, sincere, disciplined and honest with an intolerance to drugs consequently the crime rate is very low so it is a safe country to visit. Cleanliness and tidiness are other attributes while litter and graffiti are non-existent.

The tour cost of this 23-day tour flying economy class with Singapore Airlines from Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide is $13,870 and from Perth is $13,760 based on sharing a twin room with private facilities in mostly 3 to 4 star hotels, all breakfasts, 16 lunches and 12 dinners, spectacular sightseeing, on-farm and technical visits. The cost also includes carrier imposed charges, airport taxes and fees and all tipping. The single room supplement is $3,700.This tour is limited to only 38 people and because of the popularity of previous Japan Farming Tours, all led by Keiko Arita a charming and vivacious JTB tour guide, this tour is expected to fill very quickly, so early application is most desirable.

The 32-day action packed tour flying with Air Canada travels via Vancouver to Toronto, located on the north-western shore of Lake Ontario, Canada’s 4^th largest lake. The Province of Ontario is the leader among all provinces in farming commodities such as soybeans, corn for grain, and greenhouse products. Travel by coach from Toronto through the US States of Pennsylvania, Washington, New York and the New England States of Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine and the Canadian Provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, French-speaking Quebec and Ontario. At the conclusion of the tour in Toronto you have the option of flying on to London, England for a nominal additional amount of $636 on top of the tour cost from Brisbane and $436 from Sydney and returning to Australia with Air Canada stopping off in Vancouver, at your expense, if you so wish.  As with all Australian Farmers Tours you’ll get off the well-trodden tourist track visiting livestock, horticultural and cropping properties, important agricultural research centres as well as Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show held on a 330 acre site in Woodstock that showcases livestock and agricultural equipment demonstrations. Woodstock is known as the Dairy Capital of Canada and promotes itself as “The Friendly City”. The tour has been designed as a business trip and as such the cost may well qualify as a tax deductible expense. However, it is not all work and no play as the tour includes leisure and sightseeing to provide a well-rounded itinerary. Seeing both the majestic Montmorency Falls and Niagara Falls and the Bay of Fundy home to the world’s highest tides are all certainly major tourist attractions.

The tour cost flying economy class with Air Canada from Sydney is $18,800 and from Brisbane is $18,617 based on share twin rooms with private facilities in 3 to 4 star hotels throughout Canada and the United States with all breakfasts 10 lunches and 13 dinners and includes sightseeing, entrance fees, on-farm and technical visits as detailed in this action packed farming tour itinerary. The cost also includes carrier imposed charges, airport taxes and fees. The single room supplement is $5,300 by choice or circumstance. For an additional cost of only $436 from Sydney and $636 from Brisbane on top of the tour cost you can fly on to London and return to Australia with Air Canada at your leisure.

Flying Singapore Airlines to Istanbul with coach travel throughout with 17 days in Turkey and 8 days in Bulgaria known for its remarkable variety of scenery of rugged mountains and relaxing Black Sea resorts. Like other nations of the Balkan Peninsula, Bulgaria is a mix of Eastern and Western cultures and is a cultural melting pot with Greek, Slavic, Ottoman, and Persian influences which is evident by its cuisine, architecture and religious heritage. Touring Turkey you will see the battlefields of Gallipoli; Ankara the cosmopolitan capital; Cappadocia with its fairy chimneys; Konya – Turkey’s grain cellar; Pamukkale’s cascading hot springs; Kusadasi where the Virgin Mary is reputed to have spent the last days of her life; Ephesus one of the world’s finest Greco-Roman cities; the legendary city of Troy; and of course Istanbul that straddles Europe and Asia across the Bosphorus Strait. Its Old City reflects cultural influences of the many empires that once ruled here. In the Sultanahmet district, the open-air, Roman-era Hippodrome was for centuries the site of chariot races, and Egyptian obelisks also remain. The iconic Byzantine Hagia Sophia features a soaring 6th-century dome and rare Christian mosaics. There is no doubt that the highlight of the tour will be the Anzac Day Dawn Service at Anzac Cove where you will join thousands of fellow Australians and New Zealanders listen to the strains of the Last Post echoing across the valleys and ridges of Gallipoli and following the service walk up to Second Ridge to attend the Australian service at Lone Pine. You are welcome to request the 26 day tour itinerary and the actual tour cost will be known by early 2025. This tour cost may well qualify as a deduction for income tax purposes and in this regard you should certainly speak to your accountant or financial adviser.

2026 CANADA FARMING TOUR
(with an optional Alaskan cruise)

Flying Air Canada with coach travel throughout the Canadian Provinces of Alberta and British Columbia with an optional 8-Day Holland America Line Cruise of Alaska. The farming tour of Canada kicks off in Edmonton and then visits Red Deer, Calgary, Lethbridge,  Banff, Canmore, Lake Louise, Icefields Parkway, Three Valley Gap, Kelowna, Victoria to visit the world famous Butchart Gardens on Vancouver Island and Vancouver. As with all Australian Farmers Tours you will get off the tourist track visiting, sheep, beef, dairying horticultural, grain and cropping properties as well as attending the Calgary Stampede known as “The Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth” featuring one of the world’s largest rodeos, parades, stage shows, concerts, agricultural competitions and chuckwagon racing. Crossing the Rocky Mountains seeing Banff, Lake Louise, the majestic Victoria Glacier, the massive Columbia Icefield and Athabasca Glacier are just some of the many highlights of this Canadian farming tour. The 7 night Holland America Line ship MS Zaandam departs from Vancouver and cruises the Inside Passage in waters that are as smooth as it gets and delivers spellbinding scenery from narrow fjords to towering peaks and you’ll get close enough to massive glaciers and wait breathlessly for ice to calve off and plunge into the ocean.

You’ll also have the opportunity of seeing humpback whales, orca, bald eagles and brown bears; magnificent Tracy Arm Fjord; Juneau – Alaska’s capital; Skagway – home of the gold rush-era; Glacier Bay – with amazing scenery and wilderness and Ketchikan known for its many Native American totem poles and nearby Misty Fjords a glacier-carved wilderness featuring snow-capped mountains, waterfalls and salmon spawning streams. It’s also home to rich wildlife including black bears, wolves and bald eagles. You are welcome to request both the 20 day and 27 day tour itineraries and the tour cost will be known by mid-July 2025. This farming tour cost may well qualify as a deduction for taxation purposes and in this regard you should speak to your accountant or financial adviser.

Flying Singapore Airlines to Milan with coach travel throughout Italy the tour itinerary encompasses firstly the Italian Lake District then Venice, Modena and Bologna in the Emilia-Romagna region, Florence, Pisa, Lucca and Siena in Tuscany, Perugia and Assisi in Umbria, Sorrento on the Amalfi Coast, Naples, Pompeii and of course Rome. Italy is a land of rolling hills, picturesque olive groves, vineyards and tomato gardens with rugged coastal cliffs. The country’s breathtaking scenery is matched only by its rich history. Italy has produced some of the greatest painters and sculptors of all time, and the legendary art cities of Rome, Florence and Venice have exquisite galleries packed with priceless masterpieces by Michelangelo, Botticelli, Donatello and da Vinci. It is one of the largest producers of wine in the world as grapes are cultivated in almost every region and there are more than one million vineyards. Italy is also a leading olive oil and vegetable producer and Chianina cattle, noted for their size, are raised for beef while Piedmontese cattle are raised both for milk and beef. Their milk is used for traditional cheese and their meat is seen as a premium product. There are over 400 Italian cheeses and gorgonzola and parmesan are familiar names to us as was Ron Barassi and Franco Cozzo.Cheese and wine play a major part of the Italian cuisine while espresso coffee is consumed everywhere along with such famous dishes as pasta, pizza, lasagne, focaccia and gelato. There are over 50 indigenous Italian sheep breeds and most are bred for milk production as there are only a few areas where meat production prevails. The Colosseum and Pompeii still bear witness to the once mighty Roman Empire. A few historic Italian names that might immediately spring to mind are perhaps Christopher Columbus, Leonardo da Vinci, Marco Polo, Casanova, Michelangelo’s David; Galileo – the mathematician and astronomer and Marconi with his invention of radio. Or more likely Andrea Bocelli, Luciano Pavarotti – one of the most famous tenors of all time, Sophia Loren, Mussolini, former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Claudia Cardinale, Al Pacino and Robert de Niro. Italy is home to Maserati, Lamborghini, Ferrari, Alfa Romeo and the humble Fiat.There are dozens of Italian Fashion Houses and how could you resist buying an Armani suit, for an arm and a leg, made from ultra-fine Australian Merino wool or a trinket from Fendi, Fiorucci, Gucci, Prada or Valentino to name just a few.The actual itinerary is now available and the tour cost will be known by September 2025. As the tour includes many horticulture, viticulture and viniculture enterprises, livestock, dairying, cropping, agricultural machinery and technical visits it may well qualify as a tax deductible expense and in this regard you should have a word with your accountant or financial adviser. However, it is not all work and no play as the tour includes fabulous sightseeing and leisure time. You are more than welcome to request the itinerary and tour leaders Dale and Ruth Price are hopeful that you will do so.