USA may reach the new harvest almost without rice and must increase area

(By Dwight Roberts, USRPA) It was a newsworthy week for global rice markets, headlined and perhaps punctuated in the US by the realization that the current pace of exports would indicate that we would actually run out of long-grain rice before harvest! Now, history has taught us that “running out of rice” is highly unlikely, but if the current pace of exports remains stable through the balance of the year, projections would put us at 97.4 million cwt, while USDA projected exports stand at 61 million cwt. We hope to find ourselves somewhere in the middle, as we cannot sell what we don't have. US industry will likely find itself short on supplies at harvest time, much like our South American counterparts at this time. Our exceeded exports are largely due to supply shortages in Mercosur countries and a large harvest in the US compared to previous years. Strong demand in the domestic market, exports of milled rice to Haiti and Iraq and a general situation of lower industrial yields ...