Various Food Services Can Apply for Stockpiled Rice Contracts, says Japan's Agriculture Minister; Rice Should Reach Far and Wide
The Yomiuri Shimbun
Bags of stockpiled rice are on sale at a shop in Takamatsu.
The government's stockpiled rice can be sold under no-bid contracts to restaurant operators, ready-made meal providers and school and hospital food service businesses, announced Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Shinjiro Koizumi on Wednesday.
The businesses are in addition to existing retailers and rice specialist shops of all sizes.
Orders for the rice were to be accepted from 10 a.m. on Friday.
'I'd like to deal with the matter in a way that the stockpiled rice sold under no-bid contracts will reach as far and wide as possible,' Koizumi told reporters on Wednesday.
On June 10, the government decided to additionally release 100,000 tons each of rice harvested in 2020 and 2021 from its stockpile to sell under no-bid contracts.
The government began accepting orders for 120,000 tons of stockpiled rice on June 11. The government has not yet received orders for all the rice.
'It's still not a situation that we can say [the orders] have suddenly increased by thousands of tons,' Koizumi said. 'There is a need [for rice] from various food service businesses, so I suppose this additional release is an option to correspond to that need.'
Koizumi also announced a plan to conduct a survey on rice millers to grasp their rice milling results from 2022 to the present, as well as their spare capacity. The decision was made because of a slow rice distribution flow due to businesses unable to mill the stockpiled rice they purchased.
The survey will be conducted on rice millers with a capacity to mill 500 tons or more. The government will ask them to respond to the survey by next Wednesday.
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