New agriculture minister Genjiro Kaneko said on Oct. 6 he places top priority on measures to ease the supply-demand imbalance of rice.

In a media interview, Kaneko stressed that the ministry will come up with measures to cope with the issue as soon as possible.

“We will respond to the issue swiftly under our basic policy of producing and selling rice according to demands,” he said.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida instructed him to deal with the issue as rice growers are put under a difficult situation amid a decline in prices of rice harvested this year, Kaneko said.

He also said that the ministry will expand the program to subsidize expenses for rice-growing regions to stock rice harvested last year for a long term.

Regarding China and Taiwan applying to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement on Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade framework, Kaneko said, “It is necessary first to determine whether they are ready to meet the high-level requirements of the framework.”

Source: http://english.agrinews.co.jp/?p=10089