TOKYO: Japan’s rice exports through October have already surpassed its previous annual record, helped by producers’ marketing efforts and an Asian investment by a major distributor. Export volume excluding rice for humanitarian aid grew 33% on the year to 7,673 tons in January-October. Even without the two last months of the year, that already exceeds 2015’s record 7,640 tons.
In November, Yumepirika brand rice from Hokkaido debuted in high-end supermarkets in Shanghai, a result of a sales campaign led by the Japanese locality’s governor, Harumi Takahashi. The rice distributor involved in the deal, Kitoku Shinryo, aims to boost exports from the current 1,000 or so tons per year to 3,000 tons around 2020. Also promoting rice production in Southeast Asia, Kitoku Shinryo recently invested in a Vietnamese food-related company. It hopes to expand its planting acreage in hopes of setting up a foothold in the country for rice milling and sales.
Consumers found Japanese rice tasty after milling was moved closer to local markets, said Dennis Wu of Aji-No-Chinmi, a Hong Kong trading house specializing in Japanese food. The popularity of Japanese rice apparently started to grow around 2012, when agricultural machinery maker Kubota began building logistical networks to mill rice in Hong Kong and Singapore. Still, Japan’s domestic demand, which amounted to 7.66 million tons from July 2015 to June 2016, is falling by 80,000 tons a year — and the record exports aren’t close to offsetting the drop. High prices are the main obstacle to more overseas sales. At stores in Hong Kong, Japanese rice costs from 130 Hong Kong dollars to HK$140 ($16.7 to $18) for 2kg– triple or quadruple the price for Chinese rice, according to Wu.
But some are taking advantage of the high prices. Rice milling machinery maker and retailer Toyo Rice began selling the world’s most expensive rice, certified by the Guinness World Records. The product, an original blend of several varieties, is priced at 11,304 yen ($97.96) per kilo, about 30 times the cost of the commonly eaten Koshihikari variety. The Guinness certification eliminates the need to explain the high prices in selling the rice to wealthy consumers overseas. Only 120kg of the luxurious variety were made available in Hong Kong, and the rice apparently flew off the shelves. There are plans to increase export volume of the elite product, depending on next year’s harvest.
