When rice was trading above $1,000 a tonne in June, Yasuo Fukuda, Japan’s prime minister, told a United Nations world food security summit his country would release at least 300,000 tonnes of warehoused imported rice to ease global pricing pressures.

On the sidelines of the meeting, Japan opened talks with the Philippines, its nearest needy neighbour and the world’s largest rice importer, about selling 200,000 tonnes from Tokyo’s 1.3m tonne stockpile. Soon after, Sri Lanka asked to get in on the rice sale too.