Japan studies Black Sea wheat samples

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan is studying samples of Black Sea origin wheat as a possible new source of the grain, but the government has not received any requests from millers to add new countries to its list of importers.

Japan, the world's fourth-biggest wheat importer, buys wheat to supplement locally grown grain and keeps a tight grip on bulk imports from three leading exporters -- the United States, Australia and Canada -- and sells to millers at prices fixed twice a year under a program introduced in April 2007.

"We are aware of other countries, such as Russia and Ukraine, that grow abundant wheat and we have begun taking samples and analyzing the types of the wheat and their safety," Shirara Shiokawa, director of the grain trade division at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, said, speaking at the Reuters Food and Agriculture Summit.

The ministry has a budget of about 40 to 50 million yen ($441,800-552,200) allocated for that purpose of studying Black Sea origin wheat and others in the current business year, he said.

New supply channels for the grain, which is the second most important after rice for Japan's 127 million population, however may not appear as quickly as Russia hopes.

Russia aims to ship a million tonnes of wheat to Japan within 2 years, the country's deputy agriculture minister Sergey Korolev said in Singapore last month.

He said the country's state grain trader, United Grain Company, was in talks with Japan, Indonesia, Bangladesh, India and Pakistan for long-term supply pacts.

DEMAND SEEN FLAT NEXT YEAR

But Shiokawa said Japanese imports of wheat for human consumption in the new financial year starting on April 1 will likely be little changed from this year.

Japan is estimated to have bought about 4.91 million tonnes of milling wheat from overseas in the year ending March 31, up 1 percent from 4.86 million tonnes bought a year earlier.

Japan's demand for food wheat in the fiscal year ending on March 31 is also seen steady at 5.74 million tonnes, compared to 5.72 million tonnes in the previous year.

"Japan's overall demand for wheat has remained steady, so I don't expect big changes to the volume (of wheat imports) in the new fiscal year,"

The ministry will release the estimate for its purchases of foreign wheat for fiscal 2010/11 later this month after getting approval from a food policy advisory committee.

($1=90.54 Yen)

(Editing by Ed Lane)