By Kaori Kaneko
TOKYO (Reuters) -Japan said on Friday it would release another 300,000 metric tons of rice from its emergency stockpile through July and tweak its purchasing policy to counter a shortage and rein in sky-high prices.
Retail prices for Japan’s staple grain are about double what they were a year ago after extreme heat hit crops and a tourism boom added to demand. That has become a top concern for consumers and a headache for Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba ahead of upper house elections in July.
The 300,000 tons would come on top of 310,000 released from emergency stockpiles since March, which marked the first time stockpiles have been released to rein in prices.
The government’s stockpiling policy requires it to purchase the same amount released at a later date, and that timeframe has now been extended to five years from one year.
In another change, the government will also designate a portion of the release to bypass wholesalers so that the rice can reach consumers more quickly.
The stockpiled rice still needs to be milled and packaged after release, and only 2% of 212,000 tons released through two auctions in March had reached retailers and restaurants by April 13, according to the farm ministry.
For May through July, the government plans to conduct bids for 100,000 tons of stockpiled rice each month.
High prices have seen more Japanese restaurants and consumers – famously finicky about the quality of rice – embracing foreign brands, which are now much cheaper than domestic varieties even with hefty import tariffs.
Supermarket giant Aeon said this week it would start selling 100% U.S.-produced Calrose rice from early June. It began offering a Calrose-Japanese rice blend last month.
Japanese consumers are paying an average of 4,214 yen ($28) per 5 kg of rice, according to supermarket prices for the week to May 4. That’s double year-ago levels but 19 yen less than the previous week, the first decline in 18 weeks.
(Reporting by Kaori Kaneko; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim and Edwina Gibbs)
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