Japan's farm ministry said it plans to buy 77.7 percent more foreign feed wheat in the 2012–2013 year as an alternative to corn, which is usually the main ingredient in Japan's compound animal feed, according to reports.
The ministry plans to buy 764,000 metric tons of wheat and 1.288 million metric tons of barley, compared with 430,000 metric tons of wheat and 1.41 million metric tons of barley bought in the 2011–2012 year. Japan carefully controls imports of wheat and barley to protect local farmers and sets an import target for both grains for use in animal feed annually to buy them in a tender under a system to reflect the needs of end-users.
