Major cooking oil manufacturers have started raising the price of cooking oil from the 1st of this month.
This is the fourth time that the price has been raised because the transaction prices of soybeans and rapeseed, which are the raw materials, have remained high.
The three major cooking oil companies, Nisshin Oillio Group, J-Oil Mills, and Showa Sangyo, have raised the prices of household and commercial cooking oil from the delivery on the 1st of this month.
Of these, for household use
, the price of all three companies
is
increased by 30 yen or more per kilogram.
For commercial use, the
Nisshin Oillio Group and J-Oil Mills have
increased the price by
30 yen or more per
kilogram.
In the company the reason for the price increase main raw material to become soybeans and rapeseed, such as for
▽ in response to the normalization of increase and imports China of economic activity from the corona epidemic
demand for bio-fuel from ▽ movement of global decarbonization While
it is
growing
▽
On the
supply side, it is said that the transaction price remains high because the production volume is decreasing due to bad weather in North America, which is the main production area.
This is the fourth increase in the price of cooking oil for each company, and when viewed for household use, the price has risen from 130 yen to 140 yen or more per kilogram, further increasing the burden on households of foods familiar to daily life. I am.
Raw material soybeans and rapeseed
International transaction prices for soybeans and rapeseed, which are the raw materials for cooking oil, have risen sharply over the past year due to unseasonable weather in the production areas and increasing demand overseas.
If you more to examine the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, the futures price of soybeans in Chicago Mercantile Exchange, which has become an international indicator of grain transactions
▽ It was 375.1 US dollars per ton in last October
▽ to this year May It rose about 1.6 times to $ 595.6.
This is
due to concerns about growth and harvesting due to low temperatures and dryness in the United States,
which is the
main production area, and
the expansion of demand in China and other countries due to the normalization of economic activities that have declined due to the new corona.
Since then, the price has dropped slightly due to some speculation that production will increase and supply-side concerns have eased somewhat, but as of last month, it has remained at a high level of $ 458.
In addition, the futures price of rapeseed is the index of transactions per ton in the Canadian market converted into
yen.
▽ It was 41,200
yen in mid-September last year.
It has more than doubled to 3,600 yen.
The main reason for this is the decrease in yield due to unseasonable weather in the production areas, and even as of mid-September, it was still high at 76,200 yen.
Regarding the future outlook, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries states, "Price movements are greatly affected by demand trends in China and other countries, so we need to continue to pay close attention."
In the background, the increase in soybean imports in China
One of the reasons for the rise in cooking oil prices in Japan is that China is increasing imports of raw soybeans.
It is said that about 80% of soybeans in China depend on imports, and they are mainly used as food for pigs.
In China, the number of pigs raised decreased sharply for a while due to the epidemic of the infectious disease ASF of pigs and African swine fever from 2018, but after that, the demand for soybeans for food increased as the epidemic subsided. ..
In addition, it has been pointed out that the scale of pig producers is being increased as a countermeasure against infectious diseases, and that the purchase of large amounts of soybeans by these producers is also leading to an increase in demand.
According to the Chinese government, soybean imports were
▽ about 100 million tons in the last year, up 13.3% from the
previous year ▽ by September, about 74 million tons, which is almost the same level as the previous year. it is continuing.
International soybean futures prices have risen sharply since the second half of last year and have fallen somewhat recently, but are still high.
In addition to the expansion of imports by China, the demand for biofuel is increasing against the backdrop of the global decarbonization trend and the rise in crude oil prices, and investment money is flowing in in anticipation of price increases due to such demand. It is believed that this has led to high prices.
Expert “Will prices remain high in the future?”
Akio Shibata, a representative of the Institute for Resources and Food Problems, who is familiar with the world's food situation, points out that China's imports account for about 60% of the world's soybean trade volume, which has a large impact on international prices.
On top of that, as a background to the increase in imports, "In China, where pork can be said to be a'national dish', the price of pork soared due to an infectious disease, and the rise in prices raised public dissatisfaction. The pig breeding industry is being modernized and scaled up as a countermeasure against infectious diseases, but while many small pig breeders used food residue for food, large-scale farmers are of good quality. We need a stable grain. "
Another factor behind the rise in the price of cooking oil raw materials is that "soybeans are also in increasing demand as biofuels, and speculative money, which has nowhere to go due to global monetary easing, will flow into the grain market in anticipation of price increases. In addition to the decline in production of canola oil due to the drought in Canada, which is the main source of rapeseed as a raw material, the spread of infection in Southeast Asia, where palm oil is produced, makes it impossible to secure foreign workers. This has led to a shortage of supply, "he said. Due to the combination of multiple factors, prices may continue to remain high.