Rice growers in drought-baked California expect twice the reduction in their crop than does USDA. An official with the California Rice Commission told CBS Sacramento that rice plantings and harvest area will be about 420,000 acres this year, down 25 percent from 2013. California is the largest grower of short- and medium-grain rice, the types used in sushi. The rice crop is worth $5 billion, so the smaller crop could mean $1 billion less in rice revenue.
USDA says rice area is down by 13 percent in California this year and the crop also will be 13 percent smaller, roughly 41.2 million hundredweight. In its August crop report, USDA forecast a bumper U.S. crop of 229 million hundredweight, up 20 percent from last year due to larger production in the other rice states, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri and Texas. Output would double in Arkansas, the No 1 state, to 117 million hundredweight.