Tokyo – Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries (MAFF) has temporarily suspended the acceptance of applications for the sale of government stockpile rice through discretionary contracts due to a sudden surge in demand from businesses.
The ministry began accepting applications on May 26 for the sale of rice from government reserves under discretionary contracts. By 2:00 p.m. on May 27, a total of 33 companies had submitted applications. The total requested quantity of rice from the 2022 harvest exceeded 150,000 tons, approaching the initially planned cap of 200,000 tons. As the number of applications continued to rise, MAFF announced at 9:00 p.m. that the 2022 stock was expected to reach its upper limit, resulting in a temporary suspension of applications for both the 2022 and 2021 harvests.
In terms of future plans, Agriculture Minister Koizumi stated on his official X (formerly Twitter) account that applications may resume after confirming whether businesses are willing to accept rice from the 2021 harvest.
Source – Yahoo News