Japan's food industry eyes rice flour as wheat prices surge

@GBR48 - The ultimate plan of the Collective Governments organization is to reduce the overall burden upon the current Planetary resources - namely... us. So, Population reduction is a quick solution. They tried with COVID, that didn't work, now it's Nuclear War - and that may be an extreme.... Putin will probably wipe out Ukraine, which will have knock on effects upon Grain availability World-Wide, as well as fertilizers - further exasperating the situation in Japan. At least Japan is an Island, with its own resources, though who should remain here, and who.. should not... may perhaps become a question that's asked in the future...

Rice flour is not a like-for-like replacement for wheat flower. This is good news for coeliacs, but gluten-free food can have a different or less pleasant mouth feel. It takes work to make the switch and it may not always give you a suitable product.

We should not really be wasting land that can grow food directly for humans, growing animal feed. The additional hit in emissions and resource use of animal husbandry over growing plants to eat is considerable.

Governments are manipulating the markets (and the media) to reduce imports. Self-sufficiency is a political target/fantasy of nationalists. Trade is being weaponised and we will all suffer as a result. Expect soon to have the same gaps on your supermarket shelves as we now have in the UK. Governments have taken back control from market forces, every aspect of your life is going to decline as a result and you can't do anything to stop it. We have gone back to the future.

There is no reason to pay subsidies to rice farmers if they can produce rice more cheaply than wheat can be imported. But be aware that rice is a labour intensive and climate-fragile crop.

You can buy a breadmaker and make your own with minimal effort. Homemade bread is delicious. It won't save you cash but nothing beats raisin bread or chocolate chip bread still warm from being cooked, and you will know what is in it.

I think we will all be adjusting our Personal diets according to what we can afford.

The very fact it all has to be subsidized means definitely not

I really doubt that rice flour sourced in Japan would be cheaper than imported flour.

Whole wheat is good for the stomach and intestines so is brown rice.

Grow less rice ....Grow more wheat ?!

Could some rice fields , be planted with wheat or barley? maybe help with conserving water?

One thing Japan has plenty of is water.

Could some rice fields , be planted with wheat or barley? maybe help with conserving water? Maybe not all land could grow wheat, but worth a try to help build soil and break disease cycle.

eating less carbs in general is good for you.

I just hope Udon remains affordable.

Its our favorite noodle.

The international price of wheat has fallen since May. around 30%.

there is no shortage of grain at all and price is subject of negotiation between seller and buyer.ask India,ask China and others.

Japan have good opportunity buy reasonably priced what from Russia however there is some request from USA to not do so.Japan now simply follows instructions from White house regardless of own national interests.

 so here we are folks.play american poodle and pay more even for grain and bread."very nice".

Wheat can not be grown in all places.

Grow more wheat, grow less rice.

Eat more rice; eat less bread.

This will fail as other usual dinosaur projects.

@tora That is pretty hard to do without fertilizer. Urea prices have declined but are still well above the 5 year price in USDA which means prices in Japanese pesos are very dear. Much better to let broad acre corn growers to use that fertilizer and export their grain to Japan.

Baby steps, but they absolutely should be reducing reliance on imported food as much as possible. Last time I checked, japan had an abysmal 38% self-sufficiency rate in food production.

This crsis should be seen as an opportunity to rethink a reliance upon imported food. They also need to urgently re-think where they get their energy from.

Wheat futures dropped significantly over the summer and spent most of July and August at low prices. If Japan dumped its ridiculous single buyer MAFF tenders, it could have taken advantage of those prices and filled all of the port side silos or at least contracted for winter delivery.

There is not a shortage of wheat being traded on the International market, there is an extreme shortage in the value of the Japanese currency, though.

Japan needs to join the 21st century and approve GMO and gene edited crops.

Rice flour cannot replace wheat when making bread. Just ordered 25 kg of wholewheat flour from Hokkaido at the same price as last year.

I guess if there is a shortage of bread, then people have to switch back to food by from rice. It's that simple. People just have to adapt with the changing environment

Or the market may adapt to people's needs. Just because rice is traditional doesn't mean it must be the -overprotected- rule. Most of people eats lots of bread these days, just a few eat rice for breakfast no more. The purist may like it or not but it's what it is.

And the yen is at 146 today and if this exchange rate continues to the end of the year then we can expect a massive plunge in the yen according to many economic pundits.

I guess if there is a shortage of bread, then people have to switch back to food by from rice. It's that simple. People just have to adapt with the changing environment

Japan's food industry eyes rice flour as wheat prices surge

The gluten allergic will be overjoyed.

I got some coconut flour,it cost about 3.50 dollar a pound