Japan's Ministry of Agriculture has purchased 59,690 metric tons of feed wheat and 93,640 metric tons of feed barley in a tender under the simultaneous buy and sell system.
Under the system, end-users can negotiate the origins, price and quantity of grain with trading companies prior to jointly submitting bids to the government. In October 2011, the ministry revised up its imports of feed wheat in the fiscal year to March 31 to 430,000 metric tons to reflect users' need for an alternative to costly corn in compound feed. It initially planned to buy 300,000 metric tons during the same period, according to reports. Its purchase plan for feed barley remains at 1.41 million metric tons for the fiscal year.
