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Food and agriculture
China

Japanese rice growers turn to China as home market shrinks

  • Japanese product costs two or three times the crop grown in China or the US but dealers see big room for growth
  • Tokyo-based exporter says the higher-priced product proving popular as Lunar New Year gifts

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Japanese dealers are promoting their high-quality, high-priced product in China. Photo: Shutterstock
Kyodo

The Japan Agricultural Cooperatives group and wholesalers are stepping up efforts to export rice to the world’s largest rice-consuming nation China as the domestic market shrinks.

Those dealers are tying up with Chinese companies and promoting high-priced, high-quality rice on the back of the Japanese food boom in China, although concerns remain over the impact of deteriorating US-China relations on Japan-China ties.

According to Japan’s agriculture ministry, Japanese rice costs two to three times more than rice grown in China or the United States. Export costs make Japanese rice even more expensive in overseas markets.

Thus prices need to be reduced for Japanese rice to be affordable for average families and competitive in overseas markets.

China consumes about 127 million tonnes (140 million tons) of rice annually, about 20 times more than Japan, where rice consumption has fallen by around 90,700 tonnes each year due largely to a falling number of children and changes in people’s eating habits.

In April, Zen-Noh International, a Tokyo-based subsidiary of the Japan Agricultural Cooperatives, said it would supply rice made in Niigata prefecture for Chinese food giant Cofco to sell under its new imported rice brand King Food.

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