Hokuryu Sunflower Rice New Rice Thanksgiving Festival 2024 - With boundless love, gratitude, and prayers for the finest new rice from the sacred town of Hokuryu, where soul resides.

Tuesday, October 1, 2024

On Saturday, September 28th, the 2024 Hokuryu Sunflower Rice New Rice Thanksgiving Festival was held at Hokuryu Town Agricultural and Livestock Products Direct Sales Store Minoritch Hokuryu.

Hokuryu Sunflower Rice New Rice Thanksgiving Festival 2024

Sales of new rice have begun amid a worsening rice shortage. This year's Hokkaido rice is growing well. The planting situation is average, but the retail price of new rice seems to be rising.

Many people lined up before the store even opened, making it a huge success!

開店前より長蛇の列!
A long line formed before the store even opened!
並ぶ人々の列
A line of people

All set!

This year, we have prepared 5,530 kg of non-glutinous rice and 2,000 kg of glutinous rice, so we are fully prepared!

持ち込まれた大量のうるち米・もち米!
A large amount of non-glutinous rice and glutinous rice was brought in!
ゆめきりか
Yumepirika
人気のもち米「風の子もち」
Popular glutinous rice "Kaze no Ko Mochi"

Shipping reception corner

発送受付
Shipping reception

Thank you so much for your purchases!

As soon as sales began, we used a cart to purchase a lot of rice!

販売開始!
Now on sale!
台車に積み込んで。。。
Load it onto a dolly...
車まで運ぶお手伝い!
Help me get to the car!
沢山のお米を台車で運んで。。。
Carrying a lot of rice on a cart...

Garapon Chain Range

You can enjoy the Garapon Chan Microwave once with every 5kg purchase of Hokuryu Sunflower Rice!

ガラポンチャレンジ!
Garapon Challenge!
  • Gold Award: 5: New Yumepirika rice 5kg
  • Peach Award: 5: New rice style baby rice cakes 3kg
  • Yellow prize...10 pieces: 1 bottle of Sansan sunflower oil
  • Blue Award: 20: New Nanatsuboshi rice 2kg
  • Red Prize: 100 bottles: Newly harvested Oborozuki rice 450g
  • White Prize, no losers: Pocket tissues
抽選会に並ぶ人々!
People lining up for the raffle!

Hamatonbetsu Town x Hokuryu Town Collaboration

We sell frozen hairy crab, frozen scallops, salted salmon, venison Genghis Khan, beef frankfurters, and more.

Frozen hairy crab, frozen scallops!

冷凍毛ガニ、冷凍ホタテ貝柱
Frozen hairy crab, frozen scallops

* Scallops are harvested on the Okhotsk coast of Hokkaido using the "ground sowing" method, where young scallops are released into the sea after being raised for a year, where they swim freely on the seabed and grow on their own for two to four years before being harvested (poster excerpt).

Salted salmon, venison Jingisukan, beef frankfurters, etc.

甘塩鮭、鹿肉ジンギスカン、牛肉フランクフルトなど
Salted salmon, venison Jingisukan, beef frankfurters, etc.

People lining up at the Hamatonbetsu sales corner

浜頓別店舗コーナーに並ぶ人々
People lining up at the Hamatonbetsu store corner

Staff from the Hokuryu Town Hall Planning and Promotion Division helping out wearing Hamatonbetsu happi coats!

「ハマる!とこトン!トクベツな魅力がいっぱい!」
"You'll get hooked! There's so much to discover! It's full of special charms!"

The words written on the happi coat read, "You'll be hooked! Tons of special charms!"
It's very popular and very busy!

大人気で、大忙し!
It's very popular and very busy!

Thanks for the encouraging visit!

Hokuryu Town Honorary Citizen, Mr. Ryoji Kikura (former JA Kitasorachi Representative Director and Union Chairman), Hokuryu Town Deputy Mayor Masaaki Okuda, and former Deputy Mayor Toshimasa Takahashi also visited to offer encouragement.

激励訪問!
Encouragement visit!
副町長 奥田正章氏(様、元副町長 高橋利昌様
Deputy Mayor Okuda and former Deputy Mayor Takahashi Toshimasa

JA Kitasorachi Chairman and Representative Director Iwata Kiyomasa and Managing Director Okubo Hirotaka (former Kitaryū Branch Manager) also visited the venue to offer encouragement.

岩田組合長、大久保常務
From the right: Kiyomasa Iwata, Representative Director and Chairman, Hirotaka Okubo, Managing Director

A speech by JA Kitasorachi Chairman and Representative Director Kiyomasa Iwata

"In recent years, the grade of Hokkaido rice has improved, and there has been an increase in the number of extremely tasty rice varieties that receive a "Special A" rating in taste rankings.

The key to improving the quality of Hokkaido rice is to stabilize the quality of the rice by sorting it before shipping.

As a way to ensure consistent quality, we have introduced color sorting machines and grain sorting machines, which has enabled us to establish a system for selecting and shipping high-quality rice.

However, up until then, farmers had been shipping produce with a certain degree of quality margin, and so concerns arose that setting strict quality standards would reduce shipping volumes.

In the face of such concerns, farmers as a whole decided to improve the quality of their rice and to work towards shipping only rice that meets a certain quality standard.

Thanks to these accumulated efforts, we are now able to provide safe and secure Hokkaido rice that is highly uniform in grain size and low in protein.

Today, the high quality of Hokkaido rice is highly rated by consumers," said Iwata.

*A color sorter is a machine that distinguishes between the colors of rice grains and automatically separates high-quality rice from defective rice. It is mainly used in the rice polishing process and can remove foreign matter such as discolored grains, cracked grains, and immature green grains.

JA Kitasorachi Managing Director Hirotaka Okubo (former JA Kitasorachi Hokuryu Branch Chief)

Even after being promoted to Managing Director of the head office, Managing Director Hirotaka Okubo continues to visit the Hokuryu Town New Rice Festival and the Hokuryu Town Melon and Watermelon Festival every year to offer encouragement.

Every year, they give "Minorich Hokuryu Sasamochi" as a gift to the staff of the JA Kitasorachi Hokuryu branch. We are truly grateful for their kind consideration!

笹だんごの予約をする大久保浩隆 常務
Managing Director Hirotaka Okubo makes a reservation for sasa dango.

Minoritch Hokuryu

At Hokuryu Town's agricultural and livestock direct sales store, Minoritch Hokuryu, you can find a wide selection of autumn vegetables at special prices!

北竜町農畜産物直売場 みのりっち北竜
Hokuryu Town Agricultural and Livestock Products Direct Sales Store Minoritch Hokuryu

Bustling store interior

賑わう店内
Bustling store interior

Loaded with autumn vegetables!

秋野菜満載!
Loaded with autumn vegetables!

Melons are also lined up

メロン・りんご・ブルーン。。。
Melon, apple, prune...

We also have a wide selection of delicious breads from RICH Kobo!

リッチ工房パン
Rich Kobo Bread

Sunflower oil from Hokuryu Town, dried scallop dressing from Hamatonbetsu Town, and Kurosengoku soybean sunflower oil dressing!

北竜町産ひまわり油・浜頓別町産ほたて干貝柱ドレッシング、黒千石大豆ひまわり油ドレッシング!
Sunflower oil from Hokuryu Town, dried scallop dressing from Hamatonbetsu Town, and Kurosengoku soybean sunflower oil dressing!
魂宿る北竜ひまわりライスに感謝をこめて!
With gratitude for the soulful Hokuryu Sunflower Rice!

With boundless love, gratitude and prayers, we offer this premium new rice from the sacred town of Hokuryu, blessed by the bounty of nature and filled with an energetic soul.

YouTube videos

Other photos

Related articles and sites

Related articles
Related articles
Friday, September 27, 2024. The season for this year's new rice has finally arrived in Hokuryu Town!!! Freshly harvested, freshly made...
Related articles
Monday, September 9, 2024 Friday, September 6, 2024 At the JA Kitasorachi Hokuryu Branch (Branch Manager: Kimitoshi Washio), the 2024...
Related articles
October 2, 2023 (Monday) September 30 (Saturday), Reiwa 5th year "Hokuryu Sunflower Rice New Harvest Grand Thanksgiving Festival 202...
Related articles
We will report on the activities of the "Hokuryu Sunflower Rice Production Cooperative," which won the Grand Prize at the 46th Japan Agricultural Awards. Contributing to the lives and health of the nation...
 
JA Kitasorachi
Welcome to the Kitasorachi Agricultural Cooperative website.
JA Kitasorachi contributes to the local community through agricultural promotion.

For more information on JA Kitasorachi, click here >>
きたそらち農業協同組合ホームページ

 
◇ Interview and text: Ikuko Terauchi (Photography and editing assistance: Noboru Terauchi)