Japan suffers from increasing food prices

Rising commodity prices on world food markets negatively impacts the purchasing power of Japanese consumers. Japan depends for over 60 per cent of its food supply on imports and price hikes in food prices leads to rising consumer prices and reducing margins of food suppliers. Especially small and medium sized companies suffer.

Increasing demand for biofuels worldwide puts pressure on agriculture output and leads to higher commodity prices. According to the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Japan imports about five million tonnes of wheat annually, which is more than 80 per cent of the country’s domestic demand.

Nissin Food Products for instance, said last September 5 that it had to increase the price of its Cup Noodles due to rising costs of wheat and other crops. Next month the government-set price of imported wheat will rise by 10 per cent, states the online newspaper Taipei Times, referring to a spokesperson of Nissin who states that last April the wheat prices increased by 1.3 per cent.