The agriculture ministry said Wednesday that it will hold the third auction of its reserved rice April 23-25.
In total, 100,000 tons of stockpiled 2023 rice will be auctioned, including such brand-name varieties as Aomori Prefecture's "Masshigura" along with Fukushima Prefecture's "Ten no Tsubu" and "Hitomebore."
In the previous release of government-held rice, which totaled 70,336 tons, the National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations, or Zen-Noh, purchased 66,271 tons, or 94%.
There were three other successful bidders — the Fukui Prefectural Agricultural Cooperative, rice wholesaler Kawacho Rice and Zenshuren, the federation of staple food collection cooperatives in the country.
Accepted bids averaged ¥20,722 per 60 kilograms. The auctioned rice is expected to hit store shelves late this month.
Zen-Noh also bought more than 90% of some 140,000 tons of stockpiled rice put up in the initial auction round.
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