Govt to Set Aside Portion of Stockpiled Rice for Priority Buyers; Quicker Delivery to Retailers Sought

The Yomiuri Shimbun

20:00 JST, May 18, 2025

The Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry will introduce a system to set aside a portion of stockpiled rice to be auctioned exclusively to rice collection companies that can quickly sell it to retailers.

The announcement, which came on Friday, follows a review of the current bidding system for the stockpiled rice, which has been set aside for emergency use and is being auctioned to suppress soaring rice prices.

The new system aims to get the stockpiled rice to consumers more quickly, as an insufficient amount of the staple is reaching shelves at supermarkets and other retailers.

The ministry also announced that 100,000 tons of stockpiled rice will be released each month from May through July.

The planned fourth round of the ministry’s auction, which will be conducted on May 28-30, will include for the first time rice harvested in 2022.

For every 100,000 tons of stockpiled rice auctioned, 60,000 tons will be set aside for the prioritized companies.

Of the 60,000 tons, 20,000 tons will be allocated to collection companies that plan to sell the rice directly to retailers, while the remaining 40,000 will be reserved for collection companies that plan to sell it to wholesalers.

The collection companies will be asked to submit to the ministry their plans for selling the rice to retailers within about one month after the end of the auction.

A condition for stockpiled rice auctions is that the government will buy the same amount of rice from companies that purchase it. The government also decided to extend the period it will buy the rice from one year to five years, in principle. The decision was made to address concerns that multiple purchases in a short period of time may cause another spike in rice prices.

Wholesale markup more than triples

As a result of the government’s release of the stockpiled rice, wholesalers added a markup of more than triple that of the 2022 harvest, according to the findings of a ministry survey released on Friday.

According to the ministry, collection companies purchased stockpiled unpolished rice at auction for an average of ¥21,246 per 60 kilograms. The rice was put on the market from March 17 to April 13.

The companies then resold the rice to wholesalers at an average price of ¥22,207 per 60 kilograms. This means that ¥961 per 60 kilograms was passed on to the wholesalers to cover costs and turn a profit. That figure is lower than during the harvest in 2022, when it reached as high as ¥2,400.

However, wholesalers sold the released stockpiled rice to retailers and dining establishments for an average of ¥29,800 per 60 kilograms, which means the average wholesale markup was ¥7,593.

This represents an average 1.6-fold to 3.4-fold increase in markups compared with the 2022 harvest, for which markups were between ¥2,206 and ¥4,689.

Wholesalers say the increases are commensurate with rising logistics costs and that passing on a more appropriate portion of their expenses has become easier than before, because they are now being urged to help keep the rice supply stable rather than focus on competing over prices.

At a press conference on Friday, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Taku Eto asked wholesalers to take measures to change this trend.

“That stockpiled rice belongs to the people of this country,” he said. “I hope [the wholesalers] will understand [its release] is different from the marketing of regular rice.”