Rice is a cereal cultivated in tropical, subtropical and warm temperate regions for its fruit. Rice is the world's leading cereal for human consumption accounting for about 20% of the world's food energy needs. Rice is a staple food in Asian, Chinese, Indian and Japanese cuisine. As a result, rice production is the highest in China, followed by India and Indonesia.

 

This market report includes major growers, equipment suppliers, rice dryer, rice storage & rice mill, organic growers, and cooperatives in California.

 

Arkansas leads the production of rice in the U.S, California comes second, followed by Louisiana and Mississippi. On average, half of the rice crop is exported and domestic production accounts for 80% of all the rice consumed in the U.S. In California, the rice industry not only supports domestic consumption; between forty to sixty percent of the crop is exported to foreign markets, mainly to Japan and South Korea. Medium grain varieties accounts for the overwhelming majority of California production, followed by short varieties and long varieties. Colusa represents almost 30% of the state production, and together with Sutter, the two counties account for about 60% of total production in California.

 

Production cost increased because of the covid-19. Implementing social distancing, training, and extra sanitation increased operational cost for milling, packaging, and shipping. However, the rice industry in California absorbed these extra costs and shifted production to retail packaging where demand was the strongest. The increase in retail demand coupled with a surge in price have offset the higher production costs. Overall, the pandemic impact on the California rice industry remained modest.

 

Organic rice production is increasing in the whole of U.S and California leads the organic medium-grain rice production in the nation. Organic sales are also on a rise in the state and represents more than a third of the U.S. total. The most sold rice brands in the U.S include Store brand, Uncle Ben’s, Mahatma, Minute, Rice-A-Roni.