Japan pauses stockpile sales as retailers snap up rice

TOKYO – Japan paused its sale of rice reserves after seeing a fast response from retailers, in a positive sign for the government’s efforts to temper soaring rice prices and ease consumers’ cost-of-living concerns ahead of an election this summer.

Major players including Rakuten Group and Pan Pacific International Holdings, the parent company of popular discount store Don Quijote, were among the some 70 retailers to secure a portion of the 200,000 metric tons of the staple grain on sale on May 27, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.

The rush to snap up the reserves usually stored for natural disasters comes as the government tries to assuage the impact of inflation on households, which have seen rice prices nearly double over the past year, ahead of an upper house election that could be punishing for Mr Shigeru Ishiba’s minority government.

Agriculture Minister Shinjiro Koizumi told reporters late on May 27 that he was “very grateful” for the response and the speed at which retailers bought up the rice, adding that he hoped the next round of sales could start on May 30.

The government is set to unload a total of 300,000 tons of stockpiled rice with a fixed wholesale price of about 10,000 yen (S$89) per 60kg, instead of auctioning it as had been done in earlier reserve releases. Mr Koizumi has said that he hoped selling directly to retailers at a set price would halve the current rice price for consumers of more than 4,000 yen per 5kg to around 2,000 yen. BLOOMBERG

Join STs Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.