A Washington based non-governmental organization, Center for Global Development, has urged the US government to allow Japan to sell its 1.5 million MT of imported U.S. rice stocks or give it to the World Food Program to help cool global rice prices.

Under its World Trade Organization commitments, Japan imports a substantial amount of medium-grain rice from the U.S. and long-grain rice from Thailand and Vietnam, the organization said. But to protect its domestic rice production, Tokyo stocks the imported rice until it deteriorates, then sells it as livestock feed on the Japanese market.