In today's NHK news, a sake brewers' association in a certain prefecture reported that "only 60% of the desired amount of sake rice is available" and "if this continues, this year's sake brewing will be hindered." Indeed, against the backdrop of a rice shortage and soaring retail prices of table rice, it seems inevitable that all types of sake rice, especially the inexpensive brewing rice known as "multi-purpose rice," are affected.
People have been asking, "Is Dassai okay?" So far, we are managing. However, we have had to make slight adjustments to our procurement prices. Initially, we had planned a price increase of about 10% at the beginning of the fiscal year, but due to the recent abnormal surge in table rice retail prices, we have had to raise prices again.
While consumers are struggling with the soaring rice prices, it may seem inconsiderate to raise prices, but we cannot let the income per tan (0.1 hectare) of farmers cultivating Yamada Nishiki for Dassai fall below that of neighboring general rice farmers, who are considered easier to cultivate.
Therefore, we have implemented a price increase. The procurement price for first-class Yamada Nishiki for Dassai is 30,000 yen per koku (60 kg). However, when you think about it, this price has just caught up with the top-grade Hyogo Yamada Nishiki, which was priced at 31,000 yen per koku at the end of the bubble era. It has been 30 years since that price was set in 1995. Following the rise in rice prices, the retail prices of commercial sake have also been on a downward trend. I wonder, "What has the sake brewing industry been doing?"
Certainly, lower prices are preferable, but I feel that the energetic smiles of the Yamada Nishiki farmers in Hyogo, whom we started working with under the village rice system, have become somewhat less visible in recent years. Price is not everything, but the annual price reductions and declining purchase quantities suggested by the agricultural cooperatives have been demotivating. (Of course, I believe the sake brewing industry's requests were behind this; it's not solely the agricultural cooperatives' responsibility.)
Dassai wants the farmers cultivating Yamada Nishiki to continue to shine.