It’s on again for another year!
Things have gone noticeably quiet on the promotion front as breweries knuckle down and get back to the business of making sake. To be honest it still feels a little warm to be describing this period as the “cooler months”, but in Japan the calendar wields more power than the actual climate, so here we are!
It’s only a matter of weeks before those shiboritate begin hitting the market so guzzle those hiyaoroshi as quickly as you can and make room in your fridge for the class of BY7!
And now for the news…
Iwate- The sharp rise in sake rice prices has dealt heavy blows across the country including breweries in Iwate Prefecture such as Azumamine Shuzōten in Shiwa, the birthplace of the Nanbu Toji guild and Iwate’s oldest brewery, founded in 1684. Its thirteenth-generation owner, Hajime Sato, has called the situation “a national crisis for the industry.”
The price of the local Ginginga sake rice has surged to JPY31K (USD203) per 60 kilograms—more than double the cost compared to two years ago. Kosuke Kuji, chairman of the Prefectural Sake Brewers Association, warns that the shortage is deepening as more farmers make the shift from sake rice to table rice plantings
In response, more breweries like Azumamine Shuzōten have begun forging direct relationships with local farmers to ensure a stable supply. The brewery recently signed a deal with farmer Kazunori Sato in Shiwa to buy Hitomebore rice directly, bypassing the agricultural cooperative (JA) and cutting costs by roughly 20%.
