Photo/Illutration A worker moves stockpiled rice out of a warehouse in Saitama Prefecture. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

The government is blaming logistical problems for the woefully small amount of stockpiled rice that reached retail outlets.

The farm ministry on April 18 released its findings into the first ever sale of stockpiled rice.

About 142,000 tons of stockpiled rice were released in the first auction held between March 10 to 12, but the ministry study found that only 426 tons, or 0.3 percent, reached supermarkets and other retail outlets by March 30.

The release of the stockpiled rice did not have the intended effect of holding down retail rice prices due to delays in shipments to such outlets because of a shortage of delivery trucks.

At the first auction, the farm ministry asked distributors as well as wholesalers that purchased the rice from them to track and report back where the rice ended up.

Based on those reports, the ministry tracked the distribution of the stockpiled grain between March 17 and 30.

Distributors only received 4,071 tons, or about 3 percent of the first batch released in the auction. Of that figure, 2,761 tons were subsequently sold to wholesalers.

But only 426 tons were sold by wholesalers to retail outlets, while another 35 tons were sold to restaurants and other businesses that use rice.

Farm ministry officials said there were no obvious bottlenecks.

However, they noted that those involved in the process needed time to dispatch delivery trucks and coordinate the time for rice milling as it was the first time that government grain had been released in this fashion.

The distributors only tacked on about 1,000 yen ($7) per 60-kilogram bag of the food staple to the amount they paid to the farm ministry to acquire the stockpiled grain.

While wholesalers paid 22,402 yen, tax-exclusive, to distributors, retailers paid 34,114 yen per 60-kg of rice. The higher cost was to cover milling and other expenses.

The farm ministry plans to release similar tracking results every two weeks or so.

On April 18, the farm ministry also released the trading price between companies in March for rice harvested last year. The average price for unmilled rice came to 25,876 yen per 60 kg, which was 609 yen lower than in February, the first time rice harvested in 2024 was sold for a lower price over the previous month.

Ministry officials said that reflected the effect of the low prices paid for the stockpiled rice.

At the same time, the March price represented an increase of 10,448 yen over March 2024, or an increase of 68 percent. That meant it was difficult for ordinary consumers to sense that rice prices had fallen.

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