With grain markets growing increasingly tight amid declining crops in major exporting countries, import-dependent countries like Japan need a firm grasp of market trends and must brace themselves for the worst, according to the head of an intergovernmental market watcher.

While pointing out there is no immediate threat to the global balance of supply and demand, Etsuo Kitahara, director general of the London-based International Grains Council, warned that grain importers must carefully study scenarios in which they could suffer a suspension in imports.

"The concern is that grain stocks have been at historically low levels in each country," Kitahara, a former bureaucrat with the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry, said in a recent interview in Tokyo.