Posted on March, 17, 2025 at 08:09 am
With domestic rice prices remaining high in Japan, demand is increasing for cheaper imported grain. The agriculture ministry hopes to bring down surging prices by releasing government-stockpiled rice, but will imports' popularity persist?
"We're receiving more inquiries about Vietnamese rice," said Takashi Takanashi, board director of Spice House Co., a company in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, that sells imported food wholesale to restaurants and retail stores.
The price Japonica rice produced in Vietnam in a corner of the company's attached store is 3,240 yen (about $21.80) for 5 kilograms, including tax, compared to around 4,000 yen (close to $27) for the same amount of domestic rice. Japonica rice is the dominant variety in Japan, characterized by its small, short grains. The Vietnamese rice looks the same as Japanese products and, according to Takanashi, tastes virtually the same as well.
The company began dealing in Vietnamese rice in 2024. When it commenced sales of 200 metric tons around October, including to business clients, there were strong demands for bulk purchasing from ordinary customers and food service companies. It has hardly any stock left, and says it is now restricting purchases to one bag per customer.
According to the agriculture ministry, private imports of rice stood at 368 tons in fiscal 2023, but had surged to 991 tons as of the end of January this fiscal year. A tariff of 341 yen per kilogram is applied to private imports, but importing rice is still cheaper than buying domestically produced Koshihikari and other varieties, which sell for about 800 yen (around $5.40) per kilogram.
Imported rice's popularity is also evident in the "minimum access" rice managed by the Japanese government, under which 770,000 tons of rice is imported without tariffs. Of this, 100,000 tons are auctioned for use as food, and in fiscal 2024, the entire amount was auctioned off for the first time in seven years. In the December auction, bidders sought 64,380 tons against an offer of 25,000 tons, and the selling price reached a weighted average of 548,246 yen per ton including tax, a record high. Spice House had previously sold minimum access rice, but has now imported independently for the first time as it couldn't secure any through the auction.
General trading company Kanematsu Corp. is preparing to import 10,000 tons of U.S.-grown "Calrose" rice in 2025. This is a medium-grain variety with a firm texture, larger than the short-grain Japonica rice. But the firm said there is high demand for it from clients mainly in the food services industry.
A Kanematsu representative emphasized that if the release of stockpiled rice stabilizes prices, "We will likely adjust our import volume." The company is poised to closely monitor domestic rice price trends.
During a rice panic marked by serious rice shortages following a cool summer in 1993, the Japanese government imported a large amount of Thai and other rice, but due to an increase in harvests the following year, it ended up discarding a large amount of this, which turned into a social issue. During the current rice crisis, it seems curbing the ongoing high rice prices will not be easy, and the popularity of imported rice is likely to continue for some time.
Source: The Mainichi