Farmers on Japan’s west coast will sow Nihonbare rice this year for the first time in a decade as growers around the country return to older varieties to meet demand for record sake exports.

Overseas shipments of sake reached an all-time high of ¥8.5 billion in the 10 months through October as they headed for a fourth annual gain, the latest data from the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry show. Farmers in Echizen, Fukui Prefecture, will produce 1,080 metric tons in 2014, the JA-Echizen Takefu agricultural cooperative said.

Suppliers to brewers are increasing acreage as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe targets a fivefold increase in exports of sake, “sembei” rice crackers and other products made from the grain to ¥60 billion by 2020.

That’s a boon for brewers, including Takara Holdings Inc., and an opportunity for some farmers to switch from food rice as consumption falls in Japan amid more varied diets.

“Sake producers have become evermore aware of the importance of rice quality,” said Shunsuke Kohiyama, an export adviser at the Japan Sake and Shochu Makers Association. “They approach this like wineries in France getting the best grapes.”

Nihonbare was the most popular rice for eating in Japan until the 1970s, when it was overtaken by the sweeter and stickier Koshihikari variety. Brewers still favor the strain for its low protein count to produce dry-tasting sake.

“It’s high-yielding and will help boost incomes,” said Sadahiko Yasui, assistant director at the cooperative. “Nihonbare also shows resistance to high temperatures and typhoons, and is relatively easy to cultivate.”

In Abe’s home prefecture of Yamaguchi, Asahishuzo Co. is increasing production of top-grade “daiginjo” sake using Yamadanishiki rice, another vintage strain, said Kazuhiro Sakurai, the brewer’s executive vice president.

Asahishuzo prizes Yamadanishiki for its large grain and condensed starch core and used 2,400 tons last year to brew “aromatic and clean” sake, according to Sakurai.

Abe offered the closely held company’s Dassai-labeled sake to French President Francois Hollande when he visited Tokyo in June, and to Russia’s Vladimir Putin on his 61st birthday.

Output of Yamadanishiki in Hyogo Prefecture, where the variety was developed 90 years ago, increased to 15,796 tons in 2012 from 15,227 tons in 2011, according to the prefectural government.

Sake exports to the U.S. reached ¥3.2 billion, or 38 percent of the total shipments of the alcohol, in the 10 months through October, data from the agriculture ministry show. Sales to the American market for all of 2012 were ¥3.25 billion. Shipments to Hong Kong were ¥1.3 billion in the first 10 months, compared with ¥1.50 billion for all of 2012.

“Sales overseas are increasing with the popularity of Japanese food,” said Tomoko Sakaguchi, a spokeswoman for the sake unit of Takara Holdings.

Takara is the biggest seller of sake in overseas markets, where it shipped about 7.3 million liters from its breweries at home and abroad in 2012, Sakaguchi said.

The company, whose shares gained 43 percent last year while the benchmark Topix index surged 51 percent, hasn’t finished figures for 2013.

Abe aims to double food exports to ¥1 trillion by 2020. They slumped 8.3 percent to ¥451 billion in 2011 after the Fukushima nuclear disaster turned overseas consumers away from Japanese produce.

Rice cultivated for sake brewing accounted for as little as 250,000 tons of the 8.6 million tons produced in Japan in 2013, according to data from the ministry and the sake association.

Japan needs to expand agricultural exports beyond premium products and this requires greater focus on increasing the efficiency of farms and cutting production costs, said Kazuhito Yamashita, research director at the Canon Institute for Global Studies in Tokyo.

In Echizen, farmers plan to expand Nihonbare output to as much as 5,400 tons by 2018, said Yasui of JA-Echizen. Planters in Yamagata Prefecture will sow the century-old Kamenoo variety, while growers in Hokkaido are using Ginpu rice, developed in 1989, according to the agriculture ministry.

The addition last month of Japan’s traditional “washoku” cuisine alongside French food on UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list may also help sake sales.

KEYWORDS sake, Abenomics, rice, exports