(Update) Japan Retail Rice Prices Fall for 1st time in 18 Weeks

   Tokyo, May 12 (Jiji Press)--The average price of rice at 1,000 supermarkets across Japan fell for the first time in 18 weeks in the week ended May 4, the agriculture ministry said Monday.
   The average price dropped 19 yen from the previous week to 4,214 yen per 5 kilograms.
   The price drop came more than a month after the government began releasing stockpiled rice in March. The average retail price was still more than double that of a year earlier.
   To curb soaring rice prices, the government held two auctions to sell stockpiled rice in March, releasing 212,132 tons in total.
   Despite this, the National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations, or Zen-Noh, which bought some 94 pct of the auctioned rice, has completed shipments of 63,266 tons to wholesalers as of Thursday, only 32 pct of the rice sold in the auctions in March.

(2025/05/12-21:20)