Japan's Agriculture Ministry will hold an import tender for 44,690 tonnes of rice under the simultaneous buy and sell (SBS) system on December 21, a ministry official said on Monday. Shipment is set by February 24 for rice to be delivered to wholesalers in Japan by March 28, the official said. For rice to be delivered to wholesalers by May 1, shipment is set by March 25, he said.
It will be the fourth SBS tender for rice in the fiscal year to next March. At the previous three tenders, Japan bought a total of 55,310 tonnes of rice. The ministry holds two types of rice import tenders - ordinary and 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 earlier.
At ordinary import tenders for the current fiscal year, the ministry has already bought a total of 175,300 tonnes of rice.
Rice imported under ordinary tenders is mainly used for processed food and alcohol, while rice imported under SBS tender is mostly used as table rice.