Average price of rice in Japan falls for fourth straight week

By JIJI

The average price of rice sold at some 1,000 supermarkets across Japan in the week through Sunday dropped ¥63 from the previous week to ¥4,142 per 5 kilograms, the agriculture ministry has said.

The average was down for the fourth straight week, but it remained above ¥4,000 for the sixth week in a row.

Ahead of the release of the latest average prices on Friday, agriculture minister Shinjiro Koizumi told a news conference, “We’re concerned that persistently high prices may lead consumers to increasingly turn away from rice.”

The average price was pushed down by a higher sales share of blended rice, including government-stockpiled rice, which rose 4 percentage points from the previous week to 29%. The average price of blended rice was ¥3,419 in the week to Sunday, down ¥171 from the previous week.

The sales share of brand rice, such as newly harvested rice, fell from 75% to 71%.

But since newly harvested rice was traded at high prices, the average price of brand rice climbed ¥29 to ¥4,440, up for the sixth straight week.

A separate survey of about 1,200 supermarkets showed that the average price went down ¥72 to ¥3,450. Meanwhile, a survey of about 6,000 drugstores and other retail shops found that the average price was ¥135 higher at ¥4,210.

This article has been republished from The Japan Times.