Applications Start for Additional Stockpiled Rice to Be Released

   Tokyo, June 11 (Jiji Press)--Japan's agriculture ministry on Wednesday started accepting applications from retailers that hope to procure government-stockpiled rice to be additionally released under no-bid contracts.
   The latest round of applications for discretionary contracts will cover a total of some 120,000 tons of stockpiled rice produced in 2021--100,000 tons that has been additionally decided to be released and 20,000 tons that has remained unsold after the ministry started accepting applications from small and midsize supermarkets in late May.
   Once the limit for 2021 rice has been reached, the ministry plans to release 100,000 tons of stockpiled rice cropped in 2020. It is the first time that the government has decided to release 2020 rice.
   For the sale of stockpiled rice under discretionary contracts, the ministry started accepting applications from large-scale retailers on May 26 and from smaller retailers on May 30 under sales volume quotas set respectively.
   This time, the ministry is accepting applications from a wide range of retailers, from rice stores with milling capacity to large-scale retailers handling more than 10,000 tons of rice per year.

(2025/06/11-12:42)

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