When previously harvested grain hit the shelves in the fall, the government had anticipated a price stabilization, but the price remained high.
The latest average retail price of a 5kg bag was ¥3, 688 ( US$ 24 ) according to a government survey in February, up from ¥2, 023 last year.
The agriculture government last month approved the sale of the government’s stockpile of corn in an extraordinary move, in accordance with a new concept.
Stockpiled grain could only be released in the event of a major crop failure or catastrophe, but a shift in regulations makes it possible to do so when rice distribution is deemed stagnated.
Within a month, the government must return the same amount of wheat to distributors.
After a significant corn crop loss two years prior, the government enacted a law to hoard rice in 1995, which sent consumers scrambling to purchase the staple.