THE ASAHI SHIMBUN

The storage facility of the government’s stockpiled rice in Saitama Prefecture is shown to the media on Feb. 12, prior to the announcement of the outline of the rice reserve release. (Jin Nishioka)

Shoppers may soon get welcome relief for soaring rice prices as the government started the release of its massive stockpile of the staple food stored for emergencies on March 18. 

The government hopes to lower the record-high rice prices, which have been blamed on disruptions in the supply chain. The stockpiled rice is being released from a storage facility in Saitama Prefecture.

The agriculture ministry has revised its policy to allow for rice distribution from its emergency reserves in the event of market disruption, including when supply chain issues contribute to price spikes.

According to the ministry, the operation of handing over the rice to the companies that made successful bids will intensify.

The surplus rice is expected to hit supermarket shelves as early as by the end of March.

On March 18, workers started to carry out the rice from around 9:30 a.m.

Twelve tons of bags of rice, which were harvested in 2024 and won in an auction by the National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations (Zen-Noh), were removed from the storage facility first.

The rice had been stored in the warehouse, where the temperature and humidity levels were controlled. Thirty-kilogram bags of rice, which had been piled high, were carried on pallets and loaded onto trucks by forklifts in rapid succession.

In the first bidding conducted in mid-March, about 140,000 tons were won by major organizations such as Zen-Noh, which usually purchases rice from farmers and sells the crop to distributors or wholesalers. The volume was 94.2 percent of about 150,000 tons expected by the government.

The winning bid for 60 kg including consumption tax was 22,914 yen ($153), which is lower than the price between dealers in January by 3,000 yen.

“We expect that we will have a favorable outcome that will benefit consumers,” agriculture minister Taku Eto said at a news conference on March 14, hoping that the high rice prices will start to drop.

According to Zen-Noh, the organization will sell the rice to distributors and wholesalers that it has done business with, tacking on only expenses such as shipping and storage fees to the winning bid to keep prices down.

In addition, to “avoid confusion,” the organization will request that the rice bags not be labeled as stockpiled rice.

A wholesaler told The Asahi Shimbun that it is considering blending the stockpiled rice with other rice and not labeling the rice bags as being from the government reserves.

The agriculture ministry plans to release about another 70,000 tons of stockpiled rice, including the remaining amount of the first bidding, and plans to hold another auction.

Published Date: March 18, 2025