JAPAN: TRADING IN RICE FUTURES HALTED ON DISORDERLY PRICE INCREASE
August 8th, 2011But this rice thing…
There is definitely potential for a wildcard result here.
—Toshiso Kosako: Come the Harvest Season in the Fall, There Will Be Chaos
Via: Bloomberg:
Rice futures in Tokyo surged in their first trading on the bourse since 1939, triggering a suspension of trade, on concern radiation from the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant may spread to crops and curb supply.
No deals were concluded on the Tokyo Grain Exchange after prices hit 18,500 yen per 60 kilograms from the opening, compared with the bourse’s reference price of 13,500 yen. The surge triggered trade to be suspended.
The exchange listed rice contracts today for the first time since the start of World War II to boost flagging volumes and profit. The resumption comes as fallout from the Fukushima Dai- Ichi power plant may spread after it was found cattle had been fed cesium-tainted rice straw.
“People are very concerned that rice supplies may be smaller on fear of radiation contamination,” Nobuyuki Chino, chairman of the exchange’s rice futures trading committee, told reporters in Tokyo. “This was reflected in the prices,” said Chino, who is also president of Tokyo-based grain company Continental Rice Corp.
Commercial stockpiles of rice, a Japanese staple, may drop to the lowest level in four years in 2012, after the March earthquake and nuclear disaster curbed production, possibly spurring the government to release its reserves, according to the agriculture ministry.
this whole rice futures contract thing is so shady that it can only be one thing–the prelude to the biggest shakedown ever instigated in Japan.