Latest news with #NankaiTrough
Japan Times
5 days ago
- Business
- Japan Times
Government blames rice price surges on procurement route changes
Rice price surges in Japan since last summer were caused by wholesalers procuring rice through different routes than in previous years, a government white paper on agriculture said Friday. The paper, presented at the day's Cabinet meeting, described the situation since last summer's rice shortage. After the government issued in August last year information warning of a possible major earthquake in the Nankai Trough off Japan's Pacific coast, people's purchases of rice at supermarkets increased about 1.5 times from a year before. This coincided with the time of year when distributors' rice stocks often decrease ahead of the release of newly harvested rice, causing rice scarcity at retailers and others. The amount of rice cropped in 2024 increased by 180,000 metric tons from the previous year, but the volume handled by major buyers was significantly lower, due in part to some rice producers boosting direct sales to consumers and sales to nonconventional buyers. The white paper concluded that rice prices at retailers soared because wholesalers had to buy rice at relatively high prices via different procurement routes to supplement shortfalls. It explained that the government has worked to ease the stagnation of the rice supply, including by holding multiple auctions for government-stockpiled rice since March this year. The government later switched the method of releasing its stockpiled rice from competitive bidding to no-bid contracts.
South China Morning Post
14-05-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Japan's appetite for rice set to keep prices high as farm politics persist
Japan 's efforts to curb soaring rice prices by releasing stockpiles and easing import restrictions have had limited effect, with analysts warning the country's long-standing agricultural policies and supply constraints could keep prices elevated for years. Advertisement Supermarket prices for rice remained stubbornly high at 4,214 yen (US$28.50) per five kilograms in the week to May 4 despite the first decline in 18 weeks after a record peak the previous week, and they were more than double the price from a year earlier, according to data from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. The persistent price surge, which began in the summer of 2024, has rattled the food sector. Convenience stores have raised prices on rice balls and bento boxes, while beef bowl chains Matsuya and Yoshinoya have shifted to imported or blended rice to contain costs. Several factors are fuelling the spike, according to Ogawa Masayuki, an assistant professor and an agricultural economist at Utsunomiya University. On the demand side, record inbound tourism and heightened hoarding due to fears of a major earthquake along the Nankai Trough have led to a price jump. 'On the supply side, the hot weather [in 2023] caused a significant drop in rice quality,' Ogawa told This Week in Asia. Advertisement The record-breaking summer heat of that year severely affected grain quality and rice yields.
