{"id":12111,"date":"2023-12-15T15:45:09","date_gmt":"2023-12-15T15:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ricenewstoday.com\/?p=12111"},"modified":"2023-12-15T15:45:14","modified_gmt":"2023-12-15T15:45:14","slug":"usa-grown-rice-rules-domestic-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ricenewstoday.com\/dev\/usa-grown-rice-rules-domestic-market\/","title":{"rendered":"USA-grown rice rules domestic market"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

American consumers choose rice grown and packaged in the United States 80% of the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Louisiana farmer Kevin Berken teaches consumers how to identify rice Grown in the USA during a presentation at the Yellow Rails & Rice birding festival. PAM CARAWAY<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As American consumers continue to embrace the local food movement some industries are capitalizing on USA-grown. The rice industry is one of those.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of all the rice consumed in the United States, 80% is grown here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For many involved in agriculture, it\u2019s an unbelievable domestic consumption number for any commodity. For those who promote USA-grown rice, that market share is not high enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt should be 100%, but that\u2019s another story,\u201d said Steve Linscombe, director of The Rice Foundation & Leadership Class Program. Linscombe, senior rice breeder emeritus at Louisiana State University, has been promoting rice through his work at LSU and now at The Rice Foundation for more than four decades. Realistically, he knows grabbing 100% of U.S. market share is not likely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe vast majority of what we\u2019re importing is stuff that we couldn\u2019t grow here like basmati and Thai jasmine,\u201d Linscombe said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The jasmine share of the market, however, is changing. Since the pandemic American farmers, particularly those who grow rice in southwest Louisiana, increased domestic sales of jasmine rice. Jasmine rice acres in 2023 topped 20,000, or about 10 times the acres they were planting to jasmine varieties just a few years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur jasmine is getting pretty competitive with imported Thai jasmine,\u201d Linscombe said. That said, he noted: \u201cWe\u2019re making inroads on Thai jasmine, but we\u2019re not going to replace it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Subsidized imports challenge rice market<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The greater challenge for U.S. rice farmers is subsidized imports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe challenge for now and also for the future is cheap imported rice,\u201d said Betsy Ward, CEO of USA Rice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The domestic industry is particularly concerned about rice imported from India, where the government substantially subsidizes production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is chipping away at some of our markets,\u201d Ward said. \u201cWe can\u2019t compete. We can\u2019t produce it as cheaply as they can because the government subsidizes it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Linscombe agrees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIndia is as bad as it gets,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re subsidizing up to 80% of production costs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

U.S. rice shares strong story<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

To maintain its position in the domestic market, U.S. rice industry leaders said they continue to work to tell a story that resonates with consumers \u2013 including a focus on family farmers and partnerships with organizations like Ducks Unlimited to help show the sustainability in rice production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marketing support includes the Grown in the USA symbol that rice brands can license from USA Rice. The federation also works to educate consumers on the safety and sustainability of US-grown rice, Ward said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe work to ensure that Americans are comfortable eating US-grown rice, and they don\u2019t worry whether it\u2019s safe,\u201d Ward said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And USA Rice helps consumers find those brands by offering a symbol that its member organizations conveniently place on their products and in their marketing content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since rice primarily grown in only six states, all dominated by family farms, locally produced rice for most Americans means USA-grown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s the round numbers from the 2023 certified acreage breakdown for the states where rice primarily is grown, courtesy of USDA\u2019s Farm Service Agency:<\/p>\n\n\n\n