The agriculture ministry will start selling older batches of stockpiled rice to smaller retailers and rice shops through no-bid contracts, which are likely to be sold at an even lower price: a 5-kilogram bag of rice produced in 2021 is expected to carry a price tag of ¥1,800 ($12.50).
Farm minister Shinjiro Koizumi told reporters on Tuesday night that his ministry will suspend offering no-bid contracts to major retailers after about 70 of them applied to purchase from the government’s stockpile of some 200,000 metric tons of rice harvested in 2022 in less than two days.
It will, instead, start accepting applications from midsize and small supermarkets, as well as rice shops — retailers that sell less than 10,000 tons of rice annually — from as early as Friday, he said.
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