Japan Rice Buying May Outstrip Supply on Hoarding, Shibata Says
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Japanese consumers may almost double rice purchases this fiscal year, driven in part by contamination “rumors” surrounding the nation’s worst earthquake and nuclear disaster, as demand outstrips crimped domestic production.
Hoarding may result in purchases of as much as 15 million metric tons, from about 8 million tons last year, making it impossible for Japan’s farmers to meet demand after a quake-generated tsunami washed over paddies in an area representing 18 percent of the country’s output, said Akio Shibata, head of the research unit at Marubeni Corp., in an interview in Tokyo.