While U.S. rice production is zooming, California will see its smallest crop in 16 years, said USDA in its Rice Outlook report. The harvest was forecast at 36.4 million hundredweight, down 24 percent due to drought that restricted plantings. California specializes in medium-grain rice used in sushi. The bulk of the U.S. crop is long-grain rice. Overall, U.S. production is up this year, to a forecast 220 million hundredweight. Arkansas grows half of all U.S. rice. Its crop this year, 110.7 million hundredweight, is 37 percent larger than in 2013 and is the second-largest on record.
The United States is a comparatively small rice grower – about 1.5 percent of the global total – but is No 5 among exporters because half of the crop goes overseas. Thailand is expected to dislodge India as the No 1 exporter during 2015, said USDA. Thailand has an abundant crop available at competitive prices while India’s yields are down.