When he was appointed farm minister in May, Shinjiro Koizumi promised to do whatever it takes to slash the price of rice and increase supply. Three months later, however, the price of the staple is up again, and his ministry is mired in challenges with its stockpiles.
On Monday, the farm ministry announced that the average price of a 5-kilogram bag of rice sold in supermarkets nationwide in the week from Aug. 11 was ¥3,804, up for the second consecutive week. It’s the first successive week of hikes since Koizumi took office.
In a news conference Tuesday, Koizumi attributed the hike to newly harvested rice and the decline of stockpiled rice in the overall ratio of rice available to consumers.
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