Aeon Adds Rice Paddies to Farming Ventures

Aeon Co., Japan’s largest supermarket chain that sells everything from fresh food to bicycles across 424 stores, plans to add rice fields to its farming portfolio, possibly making it the nation’s biggest corporate grower of the grain.

Starting with 11 hectares (27 acres) of rice paddies leased from local farmers, its Aeon Agri Create Co. farming subsidiary will start producing the grain north of Tokyo next year, said Aeon spokesman Norihito Ikkai. Chiba-based Aeon aims to lease 100 hectares -- almost 50 times the average farmer’s plot -- by 2020. That would make it the biggest rice-producing company in the country, according to Arihiro Muroya, chief economist at Norinchukin Research Institute. There are larger areas farmed by cooperatives.