Exhibiting at the COP10 Interactive Fair for Biodiversity

October 7, 2010

ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Masahiro Okafuji, President & CEO; hereinafter “ITOCHU”) hereby announces that ITOCHU will be exhibiting at the Interactive Fair for Biodiversity being held in conjunction with the COP10 (*1) in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture and introducing business activities and social contribution activities, which take the following biodiversity into account. :

Pre-Organic Cotton Program

[photo]

When a cotton grower converts to organic farming, it takes around three years until they are certified as an organic cotton grower. Production volume falls by around 20% in the short term. ITOCHU refers to the raw cotton at the intermediate stage in the process toward completely organic cotton as Pre-Organic Cotton, and supports farmers in India and encourages conversion to organic farming by paying extra for the raw cotton to compensate for the decline in production. Currently, there are more than 600 farming households participating in the Program.

Fashion Earth PROJECT

[photo]

ITOCHU has procured the carbon credits from an Indian wind power generation project and others, and has sold product tags including the emissions rights to apparel manufacturers. This is a cross sectional approach that involves the entire fashion industry, as it enables the manufacturers to advertise their environmental contributions to the public by attaching the tags to their products.

Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)

[photo]

ITOCHU has developed renewable forest resources by its own to expand our business in the pulp and paper sector and strengthen businesses that are helping to fight global warming. We are the first trading company in Japan to be awarded the CoC certificate (*3) by the FSC (*2), which has enabled us to begin importing certified wood chips.

Coffee beans from farms certified by the Rainforest Alliance

[photo]

Since 2003, ITOCHU has been promoting the sale of coffee beans produced on farms certified by the Rainforest Alliance (*4). The certification takes environmental factors such as forest and river protection into account, as well as human rights and improvements in the living conditions of workers.

Activities to Restore Tropical Rainforests Conserve Borneo’s ecosystem

[photo]

ITOCHU has decided to regenerate tropical rainforests that would not otherwise recover naturally due to deforestation, by planting trees with the aim of preserving overall forest ecology. The ITOCHU Group will donate a total of 250 million yen to WWF Japan over the five years from 2009 to 2013, supporting 967 hectares of forest recovery. This is one of the largest contributions among private enterprises. So far, trees have been planted on around 170 hectares of land.

ITOCHU is determined to actively promote environmentally considerate business activities and social contribution activities, both in Japan and abroad, to fulfill our corporate philosophy “Committed to the Global Good” from the viewpoint of biodiversity as well.

  1. COP10
    COP10 refers to the 10th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, which is to be held in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture between Monday, October 18, 2010 and Friday, October 29, 2010. COP stands for Conference of the Parties, and this year marks the 10th meeting held, hence the name COP10.
  2. FSC
    The FSC is an international organization that certifies the forests where lumber is produced, as well as the logistical and work processes of the lumber cut from the forests.
  3. CoC certification
    CoC, which stands for Chain of Custody, is a certification awarded by the FSC in relation to the management of work and logistical processes.
  4. Rainforest Alliance
    The Rainforest Alliance is an international environmental NGO that aims to conserve biodiversity and ensure the sustainable livelihoods of people.