TOKYO, March 8 (Reuters) - Japan will sell imported wheat to domestic millers at an average price of 50,690 yen ($444.92) per tonne in April-October, up 4.6 percent from the previous six-month period, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said.
The move reflects a weaker yen, which raises import costs, higher prices of high-grade wheat and oil prices that pushed up shipping rates, the ministry said in a statement.
Japan, the world's sixth-biggest wheat importer, buys most of its milling grain through import tenders for five types of wheat from Australia, Canada and the United States and sells it to domestic millers at prices set twice a year.
The farm ministry's wheat selling price was set at an average of 48,470 yen for the six months ending this month, the ministry said. ($1 = 113.9300 yen)