Expensive Japanese Rice
The price of rice has been going up around the world, but it hasn’t had much of an effect on Japan, where domestic rice is plentiful and too expensive to export.
The Washington Post reports on the situation:
But what’s truly otherworldly about this country’s rice is its price — especially in a year when the cost of Asia’s staple food crop has exploded, causing hoarding, riots and hunger.
The price of rice on international markets has nearly doubled since January, to about $1,000 a ton. But it remains an absolute steal compared with rice grown in Japan, which costs more than $2,300 a ton.
Hiroto Endo, whose family has been growing rice for 10 generations, is struggling to make a living inside this weirdly warped market.
On his farm about 120 miles northeast of Tokyo, he and his son Ryoshi have just finished flooding fields to prepare for spring planting.
A quarter of last fall’s crop, though, sits in his warehouse, unsold, even though it has won national awards for quality and taste.
“What we must do is raise demand from consumers,” Endo said.
There was a tone of hopelessness in his voice, because the Japanese eat less rice with each passing year and international buyers continue to find the rice grown here to be insanely expensive.
