Japan, the world's sixth-biggest wheat importer, keeps a tight grip on imports of the country's second most important staple after rice and typically buys five grades of food-quality wheat from Australia, Canada and United States, via tenders usually issued three times a month that close on Thursdays.
But the ministry issued last Thursday an irregular Tuesday-closing tender to purchase a total of 49,935 tonnes of Canadian Western Red Spring wheat.
A ministry official said the supplementary tender was done as the ministry bought a total of 55,263 tonnes of Western Red Spring in a regular tender that closed last Thursday, which was below of 105,198 tonnes that was originally targeted.
"The latest tender was aimed to secure what we need as we hear that it is getting difficult to secure shipment of Canadian wheat due in part to winter weather," he said.
In December, the farm ministry issued a similar Tuesday-closing tender for the Canadian grade.
Details are as follows (in tonnes):
