The farm ministry penalized the National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations (Zen-noh) on Thursday, ordering its Fukuoka Prefecture headquarters to suspend operations for five days for falsely labeling tea.

The suspension order, which takes effect Monday, covers the making and selling of tea products. It is the first time for a nationwide producer organization to be ordered to suspend business.

At the same time, it ordered Zen-noh to improve operations by punishing senior officials and establishing a system to prevent a recurrence, and to report on improvements by March 14.