Japan's 'tourist rice' actually grown in China: report

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2015-03-03

Stacks of the organic rice in a supermarket in Okinawa. (File photo/ CFP)

Internet users in China are claiming that top quality rice sold to tourists in Japan is actually grown in China, reports the Liaoshen Evening News published in northeastern China's Liaoning province.

The rice is part of a must-buy list for Chinese tourists along with the country's high-grade rice cookers and heated toilet seats. The rice is even crossing the border through e-commerce stores like Taobao as concerns for food safety escalate with encroaching pollution problems.

Some netizens in Liaoning province, a number of whom are farmers, have claimed that the 'Japanese rice' is being grown in the local city of Panjin.

The produce in question is called hitomebore, a premium short grain variety of rice that originated in Japan. According to an official from the local rural economic committee surnamed Han, there are farmers growing hitomebore rice in Panjin to meet orders from Japan.

One of them, a local farmer surnamed Zhang, told the press that the rice fields are strictly managed according to the demands of their Japanese clients.

The fields that grow hitomebore yield half the volume of their neighbors because of the organic process that is strictly implemented, Han said.

China's locally grown hitomebore rice costs 12 to 30 yuan (US$1.90-$4.80) a kilogram. When the grain gets to Japan, it sells for around 300 yuan (US$48) a kg.

According to Zhang, the locally grown rice tastes similar to varieties grown in Japan. The only difference is where it is processed and packaged.