Why do consumers bypass what is close at hand and go abroad to buy rice?

Recently, the topic that “Japanese rice ‘Hitomebore’ bought by Chinese tourists at a high price is actually exported from Panjin, Liaoning” has become the focus of heated discussion. Could it be that, just like the toilet seats made in Hangzhou, it was exported to Japan and then bought back by Chinese tourists with great effort?

Wang Hongwei, section chief of the Panjin City Grain Bureau in Liaoning Province, introduced that the Japanese rice “Hitomebore” enthusiastically sought after by Chinese tourists is a variety of Japanese rice, which translated into Chinese means “love at first sight.” In Panjin, the Japanese rice variety “Hitomebore” is indeed cultivated.

“Although the state restricts japonica rice exports, COFCO Group has export quotas.” said Xu Guangping, general manager of Panjin Donghua Agricultural Development Co., Ltd. The “Hitomebore” rice produced by their company is sold to Japan through COFCO Group by order, with an annual export volume of about 1,000 tons.

Xu Guangping said that after the “Hitomebore” rice grown in Panjin is exported in bulk to Japan, manufacturers there package it differently. This rice named “Hitomebore” is also sold on the domestic market, where the lowest retail price in Panjin is only 12 yuan per kilogram.

For the same “Hitomebore,” the price in Panjin differs from the price Chinese tourists pay in Japan by 25 times (they spent 1,500 yuan in Japan to buy 5 kilograms of “Hitomebore” rice). So what exactly is the difference between the “Hitomebore” on the Panjin market and the “Hitomebore” bought in Japan?

After eating “Hitomebore” rice produced in Panjin, Japanese friend Ms. Takasue Kiko, who lives in Shenyang, gave the assessment that compared with Japanese “Hitomebore,” there is almost no difference; it has rice fragrance and sweetness, is relatively refreshing and chewy, and can be used to make all kinds of Japanese dishes.

Li Siyang, a Shenyang resident who bought rice back when traveling in Japan not long ago, said that compared with high-quality domestic rice, the taste difference is actually not great, but he heard that Japanese rice does not use pesticides and has no heavy metal contamination.

Xu Guangping told reporters that “Hitomebore” is grown through a company-plus-farmers model. Every year the company provides rice seeds to farmers, and farmers carry out cultivation and management according to the rice planting requirements for export to Japan. Before export, the “Hitomebore” rice they produce must pass joint testing by two organizations, the Japan Marine Products Inspection Corporation (OMIC) and the China Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau (CIQ), including many testing indicators such as pesticide residues. If any one item fails, it cannot be exported.

Xu Guangping said that the standards for rice exported to Japan and rice sold on the domestic market are the same from planting to harvest, management, and processing; it is just that the domestic market does not require so many tests.

Rice expert and academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering Chen Wenfu said that domestic testing of rice mainly includes rice quality testing, production testing, pesticide residue testing, heavy metal contamination testing, and so on, but rice is generally sprayed with pesticides before heading, and there are still forty or fifty days after heading for processing, by which time the pesticides have basically decomposed. Rice from Northeast China rarely has heavy metal contamination, and compared with vegetables, rice is relatively safe.

Why is it that products also made in China feel reassuring when bought abroad, so people would rather pay more and carry them back from far away? Zhang Yan, a researcher at the Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences, believes this is mainly because the domestic sales environment makes consumers feel distrustful, and they worry that rice produced at home is not safe.

“To reverse the phenomenon of ‘cross-border panic buying’ requires both rebuilding market trust and providing guidance and shaping.” Zhang Yan said that only by taking off “tinted glasses” and facing squarely the love and pain of “cross-border panic buying” will consumer behavior become more rational.

Experts pointed out that relevant government departments should strengthen market supervision so that, while ensuring high quality and high price, consumers can also feel reassured, thereby trusting domestic goods and avoiding the absurd phenomenon of going far away to buy rice.