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Rice shortage caused by last year’s heat wave strikes Japan

This year's rice harvest is also feared to be impacted by the scorching heat, spurring a sense of uncertainty among producers and consumers. (AFP)
This year's rice harvest is also feared to be impacted by the scorching heat, spurring a sense of uncertainty among producers and consumers. (AFP)
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27 Jul 2024 04:07:58 GMT9
27 Jul 2024 04:07:58 GMT9

TOKYO: Japan is suffering from a scarcity of rice as quality issues stemming from the heat wave last year has led to a decline in distribution.

Some supermarkets have put restrictions on purchases of the staple in order to prevent panic buying, and prices are shooting up due also to increased demand for dining out on the back of a rebound in the number of foreign travelers to Japan.

This year’s rice harvest is also feared to be impacted by the scorching heat, spurring a sense of uncertainty among producers and consumers.

“It is the first time rice has been so scarce since the ‘rice riots of the Heisei era,'” a shortage of rice experienced in 1993 due to poor harvest blamed on a cold summer, Hiromichi Akiba, president of midsize supermarket chain Akidai, said. Amid repeated price increases, Akidai’s main store in Tokyo’s Nerima Ward recently limited rice purchases to one item per customer, prompting anxiety among customers.

“I eat rice every day. What should I do now?” a female customer in her 70s asked.

Despite the harvest volume in 2023 being on par with ordinary years, high temperatures caused rice grains to develop a cloudy color or break into pieces, forcing distribution volume to fall. One major supermarket has canceled its special sales of rice since last month due to stock shortages, while another supermarket hiked rice prices this month by 10 percent to 20 percent from the previous month.

“Growing consumption of Japanese food amid a spike in inbound tourists is also a factor pushing up prices,” an official from a major rice wholesaler said.

According to preliminary June rice producer price data released by the agriculture ministry on July 16, the price of brown rice per 60 kilograms grew 14 percent from a year before to 15,865 yen, the highest in roughly 11 years.

Ito Seimaiten, a rice shop in Tokyo’s Nakano Ward, is declining rice orders from new restaurants due to depleted inventory from rising procurement prices.

“The shortage is expected to be resolved next month as the distribution of new rice (harvested this year) begins in earnest, but procurement prices are unlikely to decline,” shop owner Takeo Ito said.

JIJI Press

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