Some retailers hesitant to buy stockpiled rice on quality concerns

Japan Times

a day ago

As the government releases more of its stockpiled rice to ease a supply crunch and bring down prices, concerns are mounting over the quality and taste of the older harvests.
'I'm worried about the taste. If elderly customers think the rice is bad and stop eating it, it could harm their health,' said Hidehisa Shinohara, 47, who owns a 78-year-old rice shop in Tokyo's Kita Ward.
While stockpiled rice from the 2022 harvest has been distributed to large supermarket chains, the current focus on the older batch from 2021 has sparked hesitation among smaller, regional retailers.
When the government started auctioning stockpiled rice harvested in 2021 and 2022 in March, buyers showed strong preference for the fresher batch due to concerns over the aging of the grain and the possibility of a deterioration of flavor.
While Shinohara is considering applying to buy the stockpiled rice from the government, he expressed misgivings. 'There's this impression that we're just getting leftovers from the big supermarket chains,' he said.
A manager at a small supermarket in Tokyo's Adachi Ward echoed those concerns, saying, 'We don't expect quality from this batch, so we won't apply.'
The issue has also stirred political controversy.
During a Lower House agriculture committee session on Wednesday, Yuichiro Tamaki, the leader of the opposition Democratic Party for the People, criticized the policy, likening the aging rice to livestock feed.
'After a year, it'll be sold as feed for livestock. Of course it's going to be cheap,' he said, arguing that the sale of rice from the government's stockpiles fails to align with consumer demand for affordable, high-quality rice.
Under the current policy, the government's stockpiled rice is repurposed for livestock feed after five years.
Lawmakers from both opposition and ruling parties have widely criticized Tamaki over his remarks for being inconsiderately framed, given the circumstances.
Kenta Izumi, the former leader of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, on Thursday weighed in on social media platform X, writing, 'That wasn't appropriate phrasing for the situation.'
Tamaki later clarified on X that his comment referred to this existing framework, noting that farm minister Shinjiro Koizumi 'has also used the term 'livestock feed rice' to explain the same policy.'
Koizumi sought to address doubts by sampling rice balls made from stockpiled rice harvested between 2021 and 2024 at a ministry tasting session on Thursday.
He noted one batch was 'a bit firm' — which was later identified as being from the 2021 harvest — but said, 'They all tasted good.'
Information from Jiji added