Japan eyes boosting rice exports eightfold by 2030

Japan wants to boost its rice exports almost eightfold by 2030, a ministry official said Thursday, despite currently suffering a domestic shortage of the grain.

The country's rice consumption has more than halved over the past 60 years as diets have expanded to include more bread, noodles and other energy sources.

The new target is part of a long-term national policy to boost overseas shipments of the staple, and make farming it more efficient, especially as the ageing population shrinks.

"We plan to set a goal of 350,000 tonnes in 2030," an objective likely to be approved by the cabinet this month, Masakazu Kawaguchi, an agriculture ministry official in charge of the rice trade, told AFP.

The target is 7.8 times the 2024 volume -- around 45,000 tonnes -- which was sold for 12 billion yen ($81 million).

However, rice is in short supply at the moment.

This week the government began a rare auction of its emergency rice stockpiles in a bid to help drive down prices, which have nearly doubled over the past year.

The shortages have been driven by various factors, including poor harvests caused by hot weather and panic-buying prompted by a "megaquake" warning last summer.

Exacerbating the problem, some businesses are also thought to be keeping their inventories and waiting for the most opportune time to sell.