: When the Tokyo Grain Exchange, operator of Japan’s largest agricultural bourse, bet its future on rice trading, it didn’t expect radiation fallout would be part of investor decisions and volatility.
The exchange will list rice contracts for the first time since the start of World War II to boost flagging volumes and profit.
The resumption comes amid concern that fallout from the stricken Fukushima Dai-Ichi power plant may spread to crops after it was found cattle had been fed cesium- tainted rice straw.
“The nuclear disaster adds to factors that could influence prices,” said Takaki Shigemoto, a commodity analyst at research company JSC in Tokyo. “Rice futures may attract speculative money.”
Trading may be volatile as investors weigh the impact of possible suspension of shipments from growing areas and lower consumption on health fears, Shigemoto said. The bourse aims to boost overall volume on the exchange to 40,000 lots a day on average...
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