3 days ago
Farm ministry starts accepting applications for older rice from small buyers
The agriculture ministry on Friday started accepting applications from smaller retailers and rice shops to purchase older batches of the government's stockpiled rice through no-bid contracts after more than 1,000 companies expressed interest.
Smaller retailers that sell between 1,000 and 10,000 metric tons of rice annually, along with rice shops with their own rice millers are eligible to apply for 80,000 tons of rice stockpiled from the 2021 harvest.
Farm minister Shinjiro Koizumi said the ministry will aim to make the rice, which is expected to carry a retail price tag of ¥1,800 ($12.50) per 5-kilogram bag, available throughout the nation.
Koizumi said that his ministry intends to sell stockpiled rice 'without limit' under the no-bid method and may release more than the initially planned amount: 200,000 tons of rice harvested in 2022 — already sold out, with 61 major retailers placing purchasing orders — and another 100,000 tons of rice from the 2021 harvest for smaller retailers.
Applications for smaller retailers opened on Friday after the first batch of stockpiled rice sold through no-bid contracts was delivered to major retailers a day earlier via rapid shipment. This first batch is expected to hit stores as soon as Saturday.
Home appliance company Iris Ohyama will start selling the 10,000 tons of stockpiled rice that it has purchased from the government at its stores in Chiba and Miyagi prefectures on Saturday at ¥2,160 per 5-kg bag. It will start offering the rice at its outlet in Kanagawa Prefecture on Monday at the same price.
Major supermarket chain operator Aeon will start selling the stockpiled rice at the same price at its Shinagawa outlet in Tokyo on Sunday, followed by three others in Chiba, Osaka and Aichi prefectures on Monday.
This is about half the average price of ¥4,285 for a 5-kg bag at supermarkets in the week through May 18.
Rice prices have been rising since last summer due to various factors, including a rising number of foreign visitors consuming more of the staple grain and speculative buyers entering the market. Critics also blamed farmers for not producing enough rice to meet demand.
But farmers produced 6.79 million tons of rice last year, up 180,000 tons from the previous year, according to the farm ministry. In 2025, Japan is projected to yield 7.19 million tons of rice, which would take the harvest 400,000 tons higher compared with last year's and make it the largest in five years, the ministry said.
Koizumi told parliament on Wednesday that prices had surged due to a sharp drop in shipments made to the National Federation of Agricultural Co-operative Associations and other distributors despite higher production.
Experts have suggested that speculative buyers may have bought rice directly from farmers and are holding on to them until prices rise.
Koizumi said on Friday that to lower rice prices, he needs to assure people that there is enough rice to go around.
