Japan Average Rice Price Falls for 4th Straight Week

Tokyo, Oct. 18 (Jiji Press)–The average price of rice sold at some 1,000 supermarkets across Japan in the week through Sunday dropped 63 yen from the previous week to 4,142 yen per 5 kilograms, the agriculture ministry has said. The average was down for the fourth straight week, but it remained above 4,000 yen for the sixth week in a row. Ahead of the release of the latest average price on Friday, agriculture minister Shinjiro Koizumi told a press conference, “We’re concerned that persistently high prices may lead consumers to increasingly turn away from rice.” The average price was pushed down by a higher sales share of blended rice, including government-stockpiled rice, which rose 4 percentage points from the previous week to 29 pct. The average price of blended rice was 3,419 yen in the week to Sunday, down 171 yen from the previous week. The sales share of brand rice, such as newly harvested rice, fell from 75 pct to 71 pct. But since newly harvested rice was traded at high prices, the average price of brand rice climbed 29 yen to 4,440 yen, up for the sixth straight week. A separate survey of about 1,200 supermarkets showed that the average rice price went down 72 yen to 3,450 yen. Meanwhile, a survey of about 6,000 drugstores and other retail shops found that the average rice price was 135 yen higher at 4,210 yen. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]