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Monday May 26, 10:14 PMHikes in food product prices continuing to hit households in Japan(Kyodo) _ Rises in food prices in Japan are showing no signs of letting up, as hikes in international prices for crops such as corn and wheat spread now to other daily items like vinegar and pasta.Mizkan Group Corp. said Monday it will raise the price of 37 vinegar products from Sept. 1 by 8-10 percent for consumer items and 5-14 percent for industry use items due to crop price hikes. It will be the company's first price hike in 18 years. Prices for pasta products such as spaghetti and macaroni have been on the rise since last fall, with industry leader Nisshin Foods Inc. increasing prices last November and this March, bringing the price of its "MaMa Spaghetti" to 225 yen from 174 yen per 300-gram package. Industry watchers say further pasta price increases are likely to be seen this summer as the price of Canadian durum wheat, the main ingredient, is skyrocketing amid growing demand from China and other emerging economies. Supplies, by contrast, remain thin as many wheat farmers are shifting to growing different crops for biofuel, they said. Durum wheat prices are currently at levels three times higher than last year, according to industry observers. General wheat prices are controlled by the government in Japan. It purchases all wheat imports, excluding durum wheat, and sets prices twice a year to sell the imported wheat to millers. But the prices of durum wheat are decided in direct negotiations between importers and millers. The government has no role in the negotiations and there is no fixed price movement limit, so the prices often directly reflect the prices in the market. The government's nationwide consumer price index data show that the retail price of spaghetti began to rise last December and rose by nearly 30 percent year on year in March. An official at Nissin Foods said recently, "We have no choice but to raise the prices (again) if market prices continue to rise." There is indeed no sign of the price of durum wheat going down in the near future, the observers say. But some entities are using the phase of price increases as a business opportunity. Among them is Japan Nippon Restaurant System Inc., operator of pasta restaurant chain Yomenya Goemon, which began buying pasta products directly from Italy to realize lower prices for its new restaurant chain to be opened in June. |
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