Latest news with #stockpile
Bloomberg
a day ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Europe Gas Steadies After Three-Day Fall as Traders Watch Demand
European natural gas took a breather after a three-day slide, with traders assessing demand pockets across the globe that could challenge the continent's efforts to stockpile the fuel. Benchmark futures hovered around €33 a megawatt-hour on Tuesday after hitting a three-week low in the previous session.
CTV News
14-07-2025
- Politics
- CTV News
CTV National News: What we know of an alleged anti-government militia's weapons stockpile
CTV National News: What we know of an alleged anti-government militia's weapons stockpile Canada's defence department says none of the weapons stockpiled by an alleged anti-government militia belonged to the military. Colton Praill reports.
NHK
10-06-2025
- Business
- NHK
Japan to release more stockpiled rice
Japan's agriculture minister said on Tuesday that the government plans to release more stockpiled rice to rein in soaring prices for the staple food. Koizumi Shinjiro said the government will sell 200,000 tons harvested in 2020 and 2021 to retailers via no-bid contracts. He said he expects rice from 2020 to be sold at around 1,700 yen, or roughly 12 dollars for 5 kilograms. Koizumi told a news conference: "I think it is an unwelcome fact that soaring prices are causing consumers to turn their backs on rice, and that shop shelves are stacked with rice grown overseas. The government wants to send the message to the market once again that it will do everything it can." After the latest sale, the national stockpile will hold 100,000 tons. Koizumi says this is sufficient for any disaster, citing the 40,000 tons needed in the Great East Japan Earthquake, and 90 tons in the Kumamoto Earthquake. The most recent data from the agriculture ministry shows rice prices at supermarkets fell for the second straight week in late May. The average price of a 5-kilogram bag was 4,223 yen, or about 29 dollars, for the week through June 1, based on a survey of approximately 1,000 supermarkets nationwide. The price, which includes tax, was down 0.9 percent from the previous week. The survey did not include rice released from national stockpiles and sold under a new no-bid contract system.
Japan Times
29-05-2025
- Business
- Japan Times
Stockpiled rice shipped within three days, set to hit shelves next week
The first batch of the government's stockpiled rice sold through no-bid contracts was delivered to buyers Thursday, just three days after the agriculture ministry started accepting purchases from major retailers through the program, with the grain expected to hit shelves as soon as Monday. The rapid shipment is in sharp contrast with previous arrangements using auctions, under which it took months to sell and ship 310,000 metric tons of rice in phases. It is not yet clear whether the latest move will help lower the overall price of rice or will be limited to a one-off windfall for shoppers until the stockpiled rice sells out. Twelve metric tons of rice arrived Thursday morning at a rice-polishing factory in Miyagi Prefecture operated by a subsidiary of Iris Ohyama, which purchased 10,000 tons in total. The company will polish the rice, repackage it and start selling it at some of its stores in Miyagi, Chiba and Kanagawa prefectures from Monday at ¥2,160 for a 5-kilogram bag of rice. Iris Ohyama also started selling the rice on its website later Thursday, but shoppers had a hard time accessing the website due to a large volume of traffic. Online retailer Rakuten also started selling rice on its website Thursday at ¥2,138 per 5-kg bag, with stock selling out in a few hours. Delivery of that rice would be about two weeks from now, the company said. Rakuten had prepared a special website for the sale, limiting purchases to one bag per day and up to two bags in total per purchaser. To prevent resale of the rice, the company said it may cancel orders from customers who place more orders than are permitted. On Wednesday, farm minister Shinjiro Koizumi met with transport minister Hiromasa Nakano to ask for the ministry's cooperation in getting help from the truck industry to ensure there are enough trucks and drivers to ship the stockpiled rice to retailers. Under the no-bid method, the government will release 200,000 tons of rice produced in 2022 and another 100,000 tons from the 2021 harvest. Tokyo has also released 310,000 tons of stockpile rice to distributors through auctions since March. The National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations (Zen-Noh), which bought 296,000 tons in the government auction, had shipped about a third of that volume as of May 22. The ministry aims to sell smaller retailers the remaining 100,000 tons of rice harvested in 2021, which is expected to be sold on at a retail price of about ¥1,800 per 5-kg bag of rice. The initial 200,000 tons sold out with 61 major retailers placing purchasing orders. Information from Jiji added
Japan Times
27-05-2025
- Business
- Japan Times
At least 19 retailers applied for no-bid contracts for rice, Koizumi says
At least 19 retailers have applied for the government's no-bid contract procedure to purchase stockpiled rice, farm minister Shinjiro Koizumi said Tuesday, raising hopes of rice prices finally going down. Koizumi said during a news conference that the ministry is planning to sign contracts with retailers that have applied by Wednesday and hand them the stockpiled rice as early as Thursday. The retailers are set to receive a total of 90,824 metric tons, or about a third of the 300,000 tons the government plans to release overall. 'The rice is on track to hit stores in the first week of June,' Koizumi said Tuesday. Pan Pacific International Holdings, which operates Don Quijote stores nationwide, has applied to purchase 15,000 tons, while Rakuten, supermarket chain operator OK Corp. and a subsidiary of Iris Ohyama, a home appliance company, have applied for 10,000 tons each. Major retailer Aeon said Tuesday that it plans to purchase 20,000 tons of rice and have it for sale by early next month. Companies with rice millers, such as sake manufacturers, have offered to polish the stockpiled rice, the farm minister said, amid concerns that the extra step could slow retailers down in selling the rice. The ministry will help match retailers with such companies, he added. Koizumi said Monday that the government plans to release 300,000 tons of unpolished rice through a no-bid contract procedure and hopes to see the average supermarket price for a 5 kilogram bag of rice go down to around ¥2,000. The weekly average price hit a record ¥4,285 for a 5 kg bag in the week through May 18. More rice will be sold to retailers if the 300,000 tons is not enough, Koizumi added on Monday. 'The next step will be to figure out how the rice can be sold at smaller shops and supermarkets,' he said Tuesday. 'I've told our rice task force that we may need to revise (restrictions) on no-bidding contracts within a week.' For now, applicants for the no-bid contracts are restricted to major retailers that have a record of selling at least 10,000 tons of rice annually. The stockpiled rice was initially auctioned off to the National Federation of Agricultural Co-operative Associations (Zen-Noh) and other distributors with the goal of lowering prices by increasing supply. But as prices continued to rise, the government switched to no-bid contracts after Koizumi replaced his predecessor Taku Eto over a rice gaffe. Unlike auctions, which go to the highest bidder, no-bid contracts allow the government to sell the rice at a lower price. The ministry also decided to cut out the middleman and sell the stockpiled rice directly to retailers for faster distribution.
