At a press conference held after a cabinet meeting on September 16, Yuji Yamamoto, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), responded to a question on a controversial issue of shady transactions of rice, imported under the state-controlled “simultaneous buy and sell” (SBS) system, between trading houses and wholesalers, by saying MAFF has launched an investigation into so-called “SBS rice” deals conducted by companies concerned in past years.
“SBS imported rice has been possibly distributed with lower prices than generally assumed by padding import rice prices for sales to the government under the SBS system. These transactions could have caused negative impacts on prices of locally grown rice in the domestic market. This will be the most serious problem,” MAFF Minister Yamamoto said.
Minister Yamamoto further added “If we find out such facts, MAFF will immediately order the companies involved in the deals to take corrective actions.”
It has been revealed that some of trading houses, importing rice under the SBS system, provided wholesalers with kickbacks called an “adjustment fund,” which made it possible for the wholesalers to virtually purchase the SBS rice with lower prices than disclosed bid prices.
By using this “adjustment fund,” the wholesalers possibly sold the imported rice with remarkably cheaper prices to retailers.