The agriculture ministry said Wednesday it has decided to extend the deadline for selling government-stockpiled rice released under discretionary contracts.
The ministry now believes it is difficult to sell all of the rice by the original deadline set at the end of this month due to slow deliveries to retailers.
While a new deadline will not be set, the ministry will ask businesses concerned to make sure the rice sells out within a month of delivery, ministry officials said.
The delivery deadline, initially set for Wednesday, has also been extended. The same day, the ministry stopped accepting new applications for the stockpiled rice.
According to the ministry, about 100,000 tons out of the contracted total of 280,000 tons remain undelivered.
"Distributing the contracted amount without fail is my ministry's responsibility," agriculture minister Shinjiro Koizumi said.
The ministry had set the sales deadline at the end of August, before newly harvested rice goes on sale in earnest, to prevent low-priced stockpiled rice from affecting the supply-demand balance for, and prices of, the new rice.
However, a ministry official said the impact will be "limited" primarily because prices of single-origin brand rice remain elevated.
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