Japan will sale rice to Philippine

Where most of the countries around the world are experiencing rice shortage, Japan is experiencing a different situation. Instead of rice shortage the country has excessive amount of rice and to ease the global rice shortage, the United States has decided to relax the trade agreement to allow Japan to export rice to other countries. Japan is planning to export 200,000 tons of rice to the Philippines. AFP reports:

Tokyo is already preparing to ship 200,000 tonnes to the Philippines, but that is just a fraction of the 1.5 million tonnes of imported foreign rice that is stored in sacks piled high in air-conditioned government warehouses.

"We have a big stockpile of Japanese rice, so we can export rice for poor people worldwide to save their lives in an emergency," said Nobuhiro Suzuki, an agriculture professor at Tokyo University.

Rice, a staple food for the Japanese, was scarce following the end of World War II but as agricultural advances boosted global harvests, Japan erected barriers to protect its farmers.

Along with the Philippines, Japan also announced to send 20,000 tons of rice to the developing countries in Africa. After news of Japan’s rice import came out in the Philippines capital, Manila prices of rice became stable. The Philippines is one of the largest rice importers in the world but in the face of production shortfall of 2.7 million tons in the current year, the country asked Japan for rice.

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AFP