No major Japan rice damage from quake: FAO

The severe earthquake and tsunami which hit Japan on March 11 are unlikely to cause major damage to rice and other grain crops in the country, a senior economist at United Nations' food agency said on Tuesday. "For the moment, given the information we have, we do not anticipate a major impact on rice production or rice trade (in Japan)," Concepcion Calpe, senior economist at the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation told Reuters in a telephone interview.
Japan is a major rice producer, but imports and exports very little of the grain, said Calpe, who is also secretary of FAO's Intergovernmental Group on Rice. About 40,000 hectares of land affected by the quake and tsunami account for less than 2 percent of total rice area normally planted in Japan and a very small amount of feed crops are usually grown there, Calpe said. There was no rice in the fields when the earthquake and tsunami hit north eastern Japan earlier in March because planting season starts closer to May, she said.