Latest news with #stockpile
Japan Times
3 days ago
- 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
5 days ago
- 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.
Free Malaysia Today
6 days ago
- Business
- Free Malaysia Today
Japan aims to slash stockpiled rice prices to ¥2,000 per 5kg
Japan is expected to consider selling stockpiled rice beyond retailers depending on the situation. (EPA Images pic) TOKYO : Japan aims to drastically cut stockpiled rice prices to ¥2,000 (US$14) per 5 kg and speed up getting rice onto shop shelves as consumers suffer from sky-high staple grain costs, the farm ministry said today. Surging rice prices, due in part to crop damage from extreme heat and increasing demand from tourism, are a serious concern for Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's government with its public approval rating stuck around a record low ahead of an upper house election in July. The government will sell 300,000 metric tonnes of stockpiled rice via discretionary contracts to retailers, the farm ministry said, after new agriculture minister Shinjiro Koizumi pledged last week to quickly move rice to store. To help bring down the prices, the government will also cover transportation costs so that stockpiled rice will be on retail shelves in early June at around ¥2,000, which would be about half the average rice price at supermarkets. Japan will consider selling stockpiled rice beyond retailers depending on the situation. 'The price of rice has about doubled compared to last year. We felt continuing the same way as before would not meet the people's expectations,' Koizumi told his new team of farm ministry officials who handle the rice price issue. 'We will dispel the public concerns about rice prices with even greater speed and a greater sense of urgency,' he said. On Friday, Koizumi met with Rakuten Group CEO Hiroshi Mikitani, who said the online retail giant was prepared to support the government's efforts. The government's stockpiling policy requires it to purchase the same amount released at a later date, but the nation decided not to buy back as the repurchase system could keep prices higher. In March, the government released stockpiled rice through two auctions for 210,000 metric tonnes to ease soaring rice prices. However, only about 7% reached retailers as of late April because the distribution system was multi-layered and time-consuming.
Japan Times
16-05-2025
- Business
- Japan Times
Japan to ease 1-year buyback rule for stockpiled rice
The agriculture ministry Thursday decided to ease a key bidding rule for government-stockpiled rice that requires a buyback within a year, in a bid to promote the circulation of such rice in the market. The government has held three auctions to sell stockpiled rice in the hopes of curbing soaring prices. But the average retail price is still more than double that a year earlier. Under the current rules, the government will buy back the same quality and quantity of rice sold to the buyers within a year. Due to the small window, distributors are said to be refraining from releasing rice into the market as they expect prices to remain high. By extending the limit to five years, the government aims to secure a bigger pool of bidders, officials said. The government has released 312,296 tons of stockpiled rice over three auctions. It plans to release 100,000 tons per month in auctions between May and July.
Japan Times
13-05-2025
- Business
- Japan Times
Japan's push to lower rice prices coming in baby steps
Japan's efforts to lower the price of rice through the release of its stockpile may finally be making some progress, albeit at a snail's pace. The average supermarket price of 5 kilograms of rice dropped last week for the first time since December, falling ¥19 to ¥4,214. This amounts to a 0.4% decline from the week starting April 28, the farm ministry announced Monday. However, the hefty ¥4,000 price tag is still more than double the price from the same period last year. Angry netizens took to X to express their frustration over the slight drop. "They said on the TV news that the price of rice dropped, but the amount of the price drop was ¥19. ... You call that a price drop?" one post read. 'We understand that the price of rice blends using stockpiled rice is lower than the average price of rice sold in retail stores, with the cheapest ones being in the mid ¥3,000 price range including tax — we believe this is a result of the increased supply of stockpiled rice to retail stores,' Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said on Tuesday. Despite the government releasing rice from its emergency stockpile since March, prices have remained high, partly because of the time it takes distributors to ship the auctioned rice to wholesalers. The average price for 5 kilograms of rice grain from the week starting on April 28 declined 0.4%, the first fall in 18 weeks. | Bloomberg The National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations (Zen-Noh) purchased about 200,000 metric tons of stockpile rice out of the government's supply of 310,000 tons, but only around 63,000 tons — about 32% — have been shipped to wholesalers as of May 8. According to Zen-noh, it plans to distribute around 140,000 tons, or 70%, of its rice supply by the end of July. The major distributor said they have been delivering an average of 2,000 to 3,000 tons of rice to buyers every day. However, distribution efforts slowed during the first week of May due to the Golden Week holidays. The government plans to continue releasing rice from its emergency stockpile every month until around the end of July as it considers potentially revising the conditions for the auction. Currently, bidders are limited to major distributors such as Zen-noh, and auctions occur under the condition that the government will buy back the same amount of rice from the distributors within the next year. 'We are discussing what can be done in light of the current situation on a daily basis within the ministry,' said agriculture minister Taku Eto on Tuesday. 'I will make a firm announcement once a policy has been decided.' If the auction can be expanded to include more companies, it will likely lead to an increase in distribution channels and help circulate the rice more quickly in the market.
