TOKYO :Japanese supermarket rice prices rose for the 16th straight week and doubled from a year ago, the agriculture ministry said on Monday, despite the government’s release of the staple grain from its emergency stockpile to lower prices.
In the week to April 20, prices rose 3 yen from the previous week to average 4,220 yen ($29.38) per 5 kg, the data showed.
As Japanese consumers reel from inflationary rice prices, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s government last month took the unprecedented step of releasing stockpiled rice into the market for the purpose of reining in costs. That will continue every month through July.
With domestic prices showing no signs of falling, private companies are planning to import more foreign rice outside Japan’s tariff-free quota, paying the levy that U.S. President Donald Trump has criticised as prohibitive.
A Reuters tally of three major rice importers including Kanematsu and Shinmei shows private imports will total at least 45,000 metric tons this year. The most recent data available shows such imports totalled just 1,500 tons in the first 11 months of the previous fiscal year.
Trading house Kanematsu told Reuters it has doubled its initial import plans to 20,000 tons in the year to December, buying the rice mostly from the United States.
“If price rises and rice shortages continue, we may increase imports further, depending on domestic demand,” a spokesperson said.
Rice wholesaler Shinmei said it plans to import about 20,000 tons by around July from the U.S. for its first-ever private rice import. Another rice wholesaler, which declined to be identified, said it would buy 4,000-5,000 tons of foreign rice this year.
Major trading firms such as Itochu and Marubeni will also likely import foreign rice this year, the Nikkei newspaper has reported. The companies have declined to confirm the report.
Japan limits tariff-free “minimum access” imports of staple rice to 100,000 tons a year under World Trade Organisation rules, or around 1 per cent of total consumption.
($1 = 143.6300 yen)
