Latest 15 of 26 Total Comments Show All

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  RepublicofTexas at 09:38 PM JST - 17th July

  Though the price is excessive, I do find the Japanese variety of rice to be a lot better than the strains grown on the continent. As a result of Japanese immigration, the US grows Japanese-style rice for a lot less.

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  browny1 at 10:45 PM JST - 17th July

  Presto - as a show of gratitiude you should pay more for your rice instead of exploiting the farmer who just about breaks even.

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  westurn at 11:01 PM JST - 17th July

  "the US grows Japanese-style rice for a lot less."

  Yes they do ! And they got butter too ! But lets not get confused here. The Japanese rice that was sent to China was really for Japanese expats not for chinese consumers ! With all those J factories opening in China they figured their might be a growing market for J rice... wrong ! speaks volumes for the quality of chinese food if you ask me.

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  usaexpat at 11:08 PM JST - 17th July

  Maybe even wealthy Chinese are starting to feel the sting of the global recession and cutting costs.

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  rajakumar at 12:19 AM JST - 18th July

  Chinese consumers may be saving money, to buy more less expensive food, available at Marts.

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  OssanULTRA at 12:43 AM JST - 18th July

  "Japan exported about 100 tons of rice this year but some 30 tons remained unsold at the end of June, as Japanese rice costs several dozen times more than local rice"

  Although no one seems to notice, personally I find it quite remarkable that 70% the J-rice priced so high actually got sold on a first time test.

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  Hikozaemon at 02:03 AM JST - 18th July

  I agree it is remarkable that 70% of the shipment was sold - you can bet that it was purchased by obscenely wealthy trying it out to see why it was so expensive.

  I doubt it will catch on however, because; - Nobody but Japanese eat rice on its own. Nobody cares too much about the flavor of rice, but rather the flavor of the food piled on top of it or mixed into it. Yes, it tastes good, but that isn't so important outside of Japan - Japanese rice is completely wrong for a lot of Chinese cooking - especially fried rice. It is nearly impossible to create decent tasting fried rice with Japanese rice - Aside from the fact that Japanese rice is 1000% more expensive than other rice, people also know that something like 75% of that price is made up of governmental subsidies to prevent Chinese rice imports and support Japanese farmers, who oppose foreign agricultural imports.

  It is like trying to sell the Germans Japanese sweet tasting cake like white bread for US$20 a loaf. People will try it once, just to confirm it is a ridiculous price.

  Japanese grown rice will never sell outside of Japan while it is so heavily and artificially inflated in price. Australia and the US produce Japanese strains of rice that taste perfectly acceptable for non-Japanese cooking, at one tenth the cost.

  Peace

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  motytrah at 04:58 AM JST - 18th July

  Let's face facts. The only way this was going to work out is if the J-Rice was at a somewhat comparable price, or China really needed the rice. Neither seem to be the case. Even if J-Rice was really successful with the new Chinese middle class, all that would happen is you'd get a lot of knock off branding of domestic Chinese rice. It's just a no-win.

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  Terrikus at 06:38 AM JST - 18th July

  I doubt it will catch on however, because; - Nobody but Japanese eat rice on its own. Nobody cares too much about the flavor of rice, but rather the flavor of the food piled on top of it or mixed into it. Yes, it tastes good, but that isn't so important outside of Japan - Japanese rice is completely wrong for a lot of Chinese cooking - especially fried rice. It is nearly impossible to create decent tasting fried rice with Japanese rice -

  I'd say this is a very good reason.

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  nimbus at 08:17 AM JST - 18th July

  I don't think it has to do with only the Japanese care about the flavor of rice as another poster claims. I know plenty of non-Japanese Asians who care about the flavor, texture, aroma and stickiness of the rice.

  This has to do with the absurd price of the rice. The price of this “premium” Japanese rice is as much as sixty times of the regular rice? Only Japanese would believe that it’s worth the price, like the square water melons.

  Think of it this way, will you be willing to pay $60 for a cup of coffee on a daily basis? I can see people paying $4-$5 for a cup of good coffee instead of the regular $1 cup of coffee at a donut shop, but $60 for a cup of coffee regularly? I don’t see that happening to sensible people.

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  asdfghjkl at 10:36 AM JST - 18th July

  Some clever local person probably came up with japanese-style rice at a much cheaper price......

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  PepinGalarga at 10:38 AM JST - 18th July

  I have been to China and i think Japanese rice is selling over there, its just that the Japanese trading companies are not getting the sales. The rice is getting there through local channels at a lower price, so the Japanese are shut out.

  Another detail, is that the Japanese people in China are much fewer now after all the anti-japan campaigns, therefore there's many less consumers to work with.

  Chinese people are very proud of their rice, and they eat it at the end of the meal to show their gratitude in times of plenty. It will be hard to get $1.4 billion people to change their mind on this.

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  presto345 at 05:23 PM JST - 18th July

  Presto - as a show of gratititude you should pay more for your rice instead of exploiting the farmer who just about breaks even.

  Says Browny. Not sure what the point is. Your suggestion of exploitation is ridiculous, if not meant to be funny. I don't negotiate the price. I pay what the producer asks for it. If he asked more, I would pay it my friend. I believe in supporting local/national industry.

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  presto345 at 05:32 PM JST - 18th July

  About taste. I know people who can't discern the difference in taste between instant coffee, s-bucks coffee or gourmet coffee, or the difference in taste between conveyor belt factory baked bread and home-baked or specialty bakery bread, I could go on, but finally between (I won't specify) rice and rice. The Japanese are not going for import long grain dry type rice for the same reasons the Chinese are not going to go for Japanese high quality sticky rice whose taste they would not be able to understand in the form of a dessert at the end of a meal. People on both divides do not change that easily.

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  ulurunt at 07:21 PM JST - 19th September

  who would want rice from japan? thailand's rice is the best!

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