Rice is meant to be the inspiration of the Japanese food plan, however today there’s an entire lot of it that’s simply sitting in warehouses. According to newly launched knowledge from Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, on the finish of March there have been roughly 2.7 million metric tons of rice being held by wholesalers, almost a 54-percent improve in comparison with the identical time final yr.
That’s the biggest quantity since 2015, and the third-highest since 2009. The much more startling statistic, although, is that the two.7 million metric tons of harvested rice that’s simply sitting round represents 39 to 40 % of the anticipated home demand for rice for the yr, the very best share ever because the ministry started monitoring such statistics.
There are three causes for this, the primary of which is a bigger rice harvest within the fall of 2025 than within the previous yr. The extra important elements, although, are on the demand facet of the equation.
Over the previous few years, the worth of rice has skyrocketed in Japan. Even within the later years of the coronavirus pandemic, it wasn’t heard to seek out five-kilogram baggage of domestically grown rice at supermarkets in Japan for round 2,000 yen. Since then, although, retail costs have steadily risen, going effectively previous 4,000 yen, particularly for the preferred kinds of Japanese rice. Traditional staple or not, rice doubling in value has pressured many individuals to rethink their spending and consuming habits, and the ministry says that family rice consumption has gone down.
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But what about eating places? They purchase rice too, as do take-out joints, comfort shops, and different companies that provide pre-made meals within the types of rice bowls, bento boxed lunches, onigiri (rice balls), and so forth, proper? Sure, however companies are additionally balking on the value of rice, and whereas households are adapting by consuming much less of it, many outlets and eating places, with their entry to worldwide business-to-business distribution networks, have converted to utilizing cheaper imported rice. In 2025, Japan companies imported 96,834 metric tons of rice from the U.S., 95 occasions greater than in 2024, and its whole rice imports, from all nations mixed, was 104 occasions increased than in 2024.
So with particular person customers unable to afford consuming as a lot rice as they used to and companies gaining access to cheaper options, it’s no shock that a lot Japan-grown rice goes unsold. While rice costs have come down barely previously few months, they’re nonetheless a lot increased than they had been earlier than the spike began, and so news of the surplus rice shares that wholesalers are sitting on isn’t eliciting a lot sympathy amongst on-line commenters.
“Too little too late. There are already a lot of people who’ve switched their eating habits and moved away from eating a lot of rice.”
“They’re still charging too much for rice, so I’m not buying it.”
“I can get five kilograms of dry spaghetti noodles for 995 yen.”
“Still waiting for you to at least bring prices for a five-kilo bag back down to 2,800 yen.”
“It’s still easy to remember when you could get a 10-kilo bag of rice for 5,000 yen.”
“They raised prices while people’s earnings are stagnant. What did they think was gonna happen?”
“If they’re not going to lower prices, they can go ahead and stick as much rice as they like in their warehouses.”
“Oh, you poor things. It must be so hard for you, not being able to sell your leftover stock for stupidly high prices.”
▼ A report exhibiting rice nonetheless priced at over 3,000 yen for five-kilo baggage
Basic financial idea would say that if provide of a product is much above demand, it’s an indication that sellers try to promote it for greater than its equilibrium value, and that with the intention to improve gross sales they should lower their costs till they’re extra in step with what clients are keen to pay. That’s most likely not a transfer that rice sellers need to make, particularly after having been in a position to cost inflated costs for the previous few years, nevertheless it’ll nonetheless convey in additional income than they’ll get from sacks of rice going unsold as a result of they’re overpriced.
Source: Nitele News through Hachima Kiko, USDA, Nikkei Asia, YouTube/ANNnewsCH
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