Posted on 05/01/2008 8:23:33 PM PDT by blam
Food crisis looms for Japan as prices rise
By Julian Ryall, in Tokyo
Last Updated: 1:04AM BST 02/05/2008
Japan is facing its first food shortages in almost 40 years, with supermarkets close to running short of stocks. In the last month, the price of milk, soy sauce, bread, noodles, pasta and cooking oil have all risen as makers are forced to pass on rising costs.
Butter has already begun to disappear from supermarket shelves as surging global grain prices make it impossible for Japan's dairy farmers to increase milk production. Retailers warn that other goods could follow soon.
With the global food crisis beginning to bite in one of the world's most powerful economies, more than 80 per cent of Japanese said that increasing prices were having an impact on their household spending. Many shoppers said they were switching to cheaper brands or buying in greater bulk.
Among the most seriously affected are Japan's brewers.
"If we look at the cost of ingredients and raw materials over the last year it is clear that prices are going up," said Yoshiki Yamashita, a spokesman for Kirin.
In February, Kirin became the first of Japan's four main brewers to raise its prices. According to Mr Yamashita, this was due to the cost of its ingredients climbing to almost £35 million in 2007. In 2008, that figure is expected to exceed £48 million.
A major concern for Japan's government is that its farmers can produce only about 40 per cent of the food consumed each year by its 128 million inhabitants. This is the lowest proportion for any industrialised nation and also adds to transport costs, which have become a larger burden than elsewhere.
According to a survey last month by the Nihon Keizai Shimbun newspaper, 76 per cent of Japanese food manufacturers were considering increasing prices. The majority expect the price of wheat, soya, oilseed and other key ingredients to continue to rise during the year.
The crisis is the first of its kind to affect Japanese consumers since the oil crisis of the early 1970s.
Japan has high tariffs. Maybe now they will drop them on many basic imports like rice and beef so we can sell them some.
Japan doesn’t only have tariffs on rice.
Japan has closed markets.
Just like all our trading “partners” do.
It’s why we run huge deficits. By being schmucks...
When they get hungry enough, tariffs will come down.
Japan has high tariffs. Maybe now they will drop them on many basic imports like rice and beef so we can sell them some.
**************************************************
rice and beef they already understand ,, most of their rice is imported from Thailand, the Philippines and the USA ,, as far as beef goes their WAGU (kobe) beef is almost exclusively raised here in the USA... it’s the vegetables and fruits that they almost totally block from their markets with tariffs and laws designed to spoil/ruin the imported product such as the rules for apples where they are kept in quarantine until they’re damn near tasteless mush... and their rules about cosmetic imperfections in veggies...
I reiterate:
When they get hungry enough, tariffs will come down.
If we don’t get our trade deficit under control, they won’t have to lower tariffs.
If we don’t get our trade deficit under control, the dollar will continue to drop until we won’t be able to buy anything, from anyone.
That’s called : being poor.
That’s where we’re heading. Fast. And a lot of otherwise smart people, seem to think that’s just ducky.
We are on a train, heading for a wreck.
A big one.
Holy crap, the reason for prices going up in Japan?
Japanese food prices HAVE ALWAYS been astronomical. I used to pay $3.50 for a head of lettuce on the off season (winter/early spring).
Reasons why Japan’s food markets are so high:
Price fixing of rice, other “Japanese” consumables. Japanese cannot buy American rice (which is 1/3 cheaper and of better quality).
Tariffs on everything else.
Craziness about the poison that is foreign foods (The Japanese shut down of American beef because of BSE for a few years).
General old-boyism in food providers.
I worry but I'm not quite sure what I'm worried about, lol.
“I worry but I’m not quite sure what I’m worried about, lol.”
-
That’s what worries me.
So many, are so profoundly complacent.
I wonder if this is how it felt to be in Europe in the 1930’s. Seeing what was unfolding, while everyone danced into the night... laughing gaily (as they did back then)
Right up until their world fell apart.
Negative. Japan currently imports almost zero rice. First, the Japanese are particularly paranoid about remaining self-sufficient in rice, which is why the government so massively subsides rice farming, imports are banned and prices are so high. Second, the Japanese really don't like the long grain SE Asian rices. After a nation-wide catastrophic rice harvest in the mid-90s the Japanese were forced to import foreign rice. I lived there at the time and remember the revulsion of the average Japanese housewife at the thought of buying non-Japanese rice.
Right on Gator . I remember well the 90’s rice crisis . Personally speaking I had no problem with the imported rice , but most of my Japanese friends did . The California rice went over the best here . That would sell if it were allowed to be imported .
Correct. Couple of guys named LeMay and Nimitz, ‘learned them up’, about depending on others to grow food for them.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.