Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) set a rice output target, on November 28, for the year 2017 at 7.35 million tons (brown rice), 80 thousand tons less than that for 2016.
The production target was fixed on the basis of a current trend showing an annual decrease in consumption of some 80 thousand tons.
MAFF also announced a voluntary supply reduction target of 7.33 million tons, which is to be achieved by some farmers voluntarily increasing their set-aside areas of paddy fields more than expected.
The 2017 target of rice production is the last one that will be fixed by the Government. MAFF will cease to make a target not only for the national total production, but also for output allocation to each prefecture in 2018, when the rice production adjustment program is to be transformed from the current government-led program to a production area-led one.
The production adjustment program for the year 2017 will serve as a touchstone of producers’ ability to smoothly adapt to a change of the program which will basically require producers to adjust their rice production by themselves.
With a view to facilitating implementation of the production area-led program for supply-demand adjustment of rice, MAFF plans to persuade farmers to increase transplanting of feed-rice varieties.
An amount of rice stocks to be held by private companies such as rice wholesalers is expected to decline to 1.8 million tons at the end of June 2018, if the voluntary supply-cut target of 7.33 million tons is met in 2017.
It is generally anticipated that a rice market will turn to show an upward trend when the rice inventories fall below a level of 2 million tons.