SHIGA –
Japan’s rice market is dealing with a rising surplus as giant volumes of final 12 months’s crop stay unsold simply as one other sturdy harvest begins reaching the market, forcing retailers to slash costs beneath value and leaving farmers warning that losses might make it unattainable to proceed farming.
Agriculture Minister Suzuki introduced on September 1 that the federal government will start procedures this month to purchase again rice from reserves that was launched final 12 months, after confirming that ample provides might be out there.
The transfer has raised hopes that authorities purchases might assist ease the rice glut, however retailers and farmers already caught in sharp market swings say the injury is changing into severe.
At a rice retailer in Koka, Shiga Prefecture, giant portions of rice stay in storage even because the enterprise prepares for the full-scale arrival of the brand new harvest.
Shop proprietor Toshiyuki Imai stated the rice was bought from farmers within the autumn of 2025 and would usually have been bought out by March.
Instead, greater than seven tons of final 12 months’s crop stays in a warehouse that might often be empty presently of 12 months and able to obtain newly harvested rice.
With gross sales sluggish and space for storing wanted for the brand new crop, Imai stated he has been pressured to make a painful choice and promote the older rice with out regard to its unique buy worth.
He stated some varieties must be bought at surprisingly low costs merely to draw consumers as a result of this 12 months’s new rice is cheaper.
Rice that bought for greater than 4,000 yen per 5 kilograms final 12 months is now being provided in some instances for lower than 2,000 yen, far beneath what the retailer paid for it.
Customers have welcomed the decrease costs. One shopper stated rice had been a staple since childhood and referred to as for costs to stay steady.
For the retailer, nonetheless, the reductions are leading to severe losses.
The drawback can be spreading to rice farmers as harvesting of the brand new crop advances throughout Shiga Prefecture.
Rice farmer Kazuhiro Yamamoto stated favorable climate and satisfactory rainfall had produced one other sturdy crop, with yields anticipated to exceed these of the earlier 12 months.
The ample harvest, nonetheless, is pushing down costs for newly harvested rice.
Yamamoto stated costs for some varieties have fallen to lower than half their earlier stage, with quantities that had reached 29,000 yen per 60 kilograms dropping by greater than 50%.
Advance funds often known as provisional funds, which agricultural cooperatives and others pay farmers earlier than closing settlement, are anticipated to be roughly half the elevated ranges of final 12 months and fall beneath regular ranges.
Yamamoto stated losses can be unavoidable.
He stated the price of agricultural supplies and fertilizer has risen sharply, whereas costs for a lot farm equipment have elevated to almost 1.5 occasions earlier ranges.
“At this level, it becomes completely impossible to continue farming,” Yamamoto stated. “In other words, you cannot make a living. There is virtually no income, so eventually you cannot live from it. It would be better to quit farming. There is no point in spending money just to continue farming.”
Although Yamamoto hopes the federal government’s repurchase of reserve rice will present some aid, he expects its impression in the marketplace to be restricted.
He stated that even when the federal government buys again reserve rice and adjusts provides, declining rice consumption and this 12 months’s sturdy harvest might result in a good bigger buildup of privately held inventories.
Source: YOMIURI