Amid high prices for rice resulting from supply bottlenecks, the government said Feb. 14 it will start releasing 210,000 metric tons of the staple grain from its emergency stockpile in March in the hopes of improving the situation in the Japanese market.
This will be the first time for the government to tap its stockpile to reduce prices instead of due to emergencies such as rice shortages stemming from extremely poor harvests or natural disasters.
“The rice has been well produced by farmers. There should definitely be enough rice in the country to meet the demand,” said agriculture minister Taku Eto in a news conference on Feb. 14. “However, there is a bottleneck in the distribution system, and because of that, (rice) can only be offered to consumers at a high price.”
According to the agriculture ministry, the amount of rice produced in 2024 increased 180,000 tons from the previous year. But the amount that distributors, such as nationwide agricultural cooperatives, were able to collect through December was down by 210,000 tons.
The ministry says that it will first release 150,000 tons of rice. The remaining 60,000 tons will be released at a later date after the ministry gauges the effect of the initial batch. (The Japan Times)
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