January 3, 2008

Japan may escalate reserves of emergency grains

Japan, the world's biggest grain importer, is mulling to raise its emergency stockpiles of corn, wheat and soy this year to ensure adequate supplies amid skyrocketing global grain prices, reports the Japanese daily Yomiuri.

The country plans to up its stocks, including privately held inventories, to three months of annual demand in 2009 from one to two months currently, according to the newspaper. The report also said Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda will draw up a report by March and submit it to the farm ministry.

Japan's imports of corn, which come mostly from the US, are seen at 16.3 million tonnes in the year ending September 2008, while wheat imports are projected at 5.5 million tonnes and soy imports at 4.2 million tonnes, the US Department of Agriculture said in a report on December 11.

Wheat and soy have been among the best-performing grains last year, with respective gains of 79 percent and 81 percent. Corn, which gained 18 percent in the past year, reached an 11-year high this week at US$4.62 a bushel.

In a report by the US Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) in March 2007, Japan's emergency stockpiles of essential feed grains in 2006 included 536,000 tonnes of corn, 64,000 tonnes of sorghum and 350,000 tonnes of barley.

Wheat inventories were set 900,000 tonnes, in 2006, the report said, adding that actual stock figures are not disclosed.

The target stockpile amount for soy was reduced to 39,000 tonnes in April 2006 from 43,000 tonnes in 2005, said FAS in a separate report in May.