Japan Govt Panel Suggests Minimum Access Rice Sales for Staple Food

Tokyo, Nov. 7 (Jiji Press)–Japan’s Fiscal System Council, which advises the finance minister, proposed at a subcommittee meeting on Friday that the government considers sales of minimum access rice for staple food as long as they do not affect markets. Currently, the Japanese government sells most such rice at lower prices for feed and processing, after importing it without tariffs. Losses have been caused by gaps between the sales prices and procurement costs. The council made the proposal as the amount of minimum access rice from the United States, whose import cost is relatively high, is set to increase due to Japan-U.S. tariff agreements. Japan annually imports 770,000 tons of minimum access rice. Of the total, up to 100,000 tons is sold as staple food, while the rest is treated as general minimum access rice for feed and processing. Rice from the United States accounts for some 40 pct of general minimum access rice, but the figure is set to rise to some 70 pct under the tariff agreements. In fiscal 2023, sales of U.S. rice resulted in a loss of 68.4 billion yen due to the gaps with the import cost, which stood at 130 yen per kilogram, compared with 84 yen for rice from Thailand. Losses are expected to expand further if U.S. rice imports increase. The council also proposed that the government considers setting up systems to tackle part of rice stored privately as civilian stockpiles for government rice stocks. The government sells its stocked rice for feed at lower prices after it is stored for five years, but related annual costs including storage and transportation expenses come to 40-60 billion yen. The Finance Ministry says costs will be significantly reduced if privately stocked rice can be sold for staple food. The council discussed the results of its analysis of surging rice prices in Japan and related challenges. With profits added at each step of rice distribution, opinions were expressed that it would be important to prepare circumstances that allow market functions to work at each distribution step. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]