TOKYO, Feb. 10 (Xinhua) -- Japan's rice exports rose 3.7 percent to a fresh record high in 2025, while growing at a much slower pace, government data showed Tuesday.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, the country exported more than 48,000 tonnes of rice, including packages of the precooked grain, in 2025, marking the fifth consecutive year of record overseas shipments since 2020, when comparable statistics became available.
Meanwhile, the pace of growth slowed sharply from over 20 percent in each of the previous three years through 2024, as the high price of home-grown rice spurred domestic shipments, the ministry said.
The government plans to increase the country's rice exports by nearly eight-fold to 350,000 tonnes in 2030 from 2024, as part of a new mechanism to prevent future rice shortages in Japan. ■