Japan's Agriculture Ministry said on Friday it bought 47,000 tonnes of rice from the United States, Thailand and Vietnam at an ordinary import tender.
Of the total, the ministry bought 14,000 tonnes from Thailand for shipment from November 15 to December 20, a ministry official said. The ministry also bought 7,000 tonnes from Vietnam for shipment from December 1 to December 31.
It bought 13,000 tonnes from the United States for shipment from November 22 to December 20 and an additional 13,000 tonnes of US rice for shipment from December 1 to December 31. It was the third ordinary tender for imported rice in the fiscal year to next March.
In the previous two tenders, the ministry bought a total of 14,400 tonnes of rice. The ministry holds two types of rice import tender ordinary and simultaneous buy and sell (SBS) in line with world trade agreements.
In fiscal 2004/05, the ministry is obliged to buy 770,000 tonnes of foreign rice on a brown rice basis. Of that total, it plans to buy 100,000 tonnes through SBS tenders, unchanged from a year, and the remaining volume through ordinary tenders.
Rice imported under ordinary tenders is mainly used for processed food and alcohol, while rice imported under SBS tenders is mostly used as table rice.
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