Japan's Marubeni signs deal with Cofco

Japanese trading house Marubeni Corp on Monday (June 7) signed a deal to exclusively import Chinese milling wheat to Japan from China's state-owned Cofco Co Ltd, in a move to secure stable grain supply.

Through Marubeni's exclusive agreement with Cofco, China's dominant grain trading company, the Japanese trading firm hopes to achieve a target of importing 300,000 tonnes of Chinese food wheat to Japan annually in 2015, a company official said.

Marubeni currently handles 18.5 million tonnes of grain annually, he said.

"We plan to first collect samples and inspect them, before deciding on when to start actually importing," the official said.

In late April, Marubeni signed a deal with Russian grains consolidator Amurzerno and port logistics firm Fetexim to import 400,000 tonnes of feed wheat in the next three to five years.

Japan, the world's fourth-largest wheat importer, buys about 5 million tonnes of milling wheat a year from abroad, which accounts for almost 90% of local consumption.

Japanese trading firms are stepping up efforts to secure grain supplies, aiming to use the sheer volume they trade in the global market as a bargaining tool to secure grain for Japan, as supplies are expected to tighten due to voracious demand in China and emerging economies.