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Report
No.240805 |
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- International - |
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Japan and China Agree to Resume the Export of Japanese Rice to China Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Toshikatsu Matsuoka held a meeting at the office of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries on April 11 with Li Changjiang, a top Chinese food inspection official. They agreed to resume the export of Japanese rice to China, and signed a document that set out quarantine conditions and other provisions. Japanese rice will be milled at a facility designated by the ministry and approved by China prior to the fumigation for export. A summit meeting held on the same day between Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao welcomed the resumption of the export as a result of the development of "strategic reciprocal relationship". After the agreement, Agriculture Minister Matsuoka emphasized the successful achievement, saying that the rice export to China should give a good, effective way out (of the stagnation that Japan's agriculture had been experienced). The main elements of the agreement, which is based on the assumption that milled rice will be exported, include (1) ensuring that the rice is insect-free through the installation of an attractant trap at rice milling plants that ship rice to China; (2) the rice export permission being subject to the designation of the plant by the competent authority in Japan and to the visit followed by the approval of the Chinese counterpart to the plant; (3) labeling on rice in Chinese of the destination (i.e. for China) as well as of a name and location of the milling plant; and (4) fumigation of rice prior to export and its certificate attached. The Japanese government aims to increase the export of agricultural products to 1 trillion yen by 2013. In 2006, 1,269 tons (or 437 million yen) of rice was exported, showing a 1.4-fold increase from the previous year. The negligible amount of rice was exported to China until 2003 when the export was banned by the Chinese government. After the resumption, prospective buyers are wealthier people whose number is increasing with the economic growth. The ministry expects a "certain room to grow" in the Chinese market. China banned the import of Japanese rice in 2003 after modifying its quarantine system. Although Japan asked China to resume the import, the nation did not favorably respond, saying that Japanese rice posed a danger of bringing carpet beetles and other foreign insects into China. Carpet beetles are insects that stay on the surface of brown rice. After Agriculture Minister Matsuoka visited China and paved the way to the agreement in January, two nations sought the formal agreement at the time of Premier Wen's visit to Japan. |
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