Tainan exports 500,000 kg of rice to Japan

​TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Tainan’s Fang Rong Rice Factory shipped 500,000 kg of white rice to Japan on Thursday, marking a significant boost in Taiwan’s rice exports.

Tainan Mayor Huang Wei-che (黃偉哲) highlighted the challenges Taiwan faces in exporting rice to Japan, a country known for its strict protectionist policies on rice imports. However, due to a recent supply shortfall in Japan, local rice traders have increasingly turned to Taiwan for premium rice alternatives.

The shipment features the Tainan No. 11 rice variety, cultivated by the Tainan District Agricultural Research and Extension Station after eight years of research and development. This new variety is praised for its taste, high yield, strong resistance to pests and diseases, lodging resistance, and minimal grain shattering, according to the station.

Packaged in 5-kilogram bags, the rice will be sold through retail channels across Japan.

Japan’s rice shortage stems primarily from declining cultivation and total production. As the farming population ages and elderly farmers retire, the amount of arable land dedicated to rice has decreased.

Japan enforces some of the world’s strictest rice import limits, allowing only 770 million kilograms annually. Of this quota, 670 million kilograms are purchased by the Japanese government as public stock.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture Hu Jong-i (胡忠一) estimated that Taiwan’s rice exports to Japan will exceed 10 million kilograms this year, which is almost three times the annual average over the past five years.