2022/23 Rice Imports Projected at an All-time High

U.S. rice imports for the 2022/23 marketing year, August–July, are projected to rise 16 percent from a year earlier and to reach the highest volume on record at 44 million hundredweight. USDA’s Economic Research Service reports imported rice is also projected to account for almost 32 percent of domestic use of rice in 2022/23, the highest share on record. Imports of long-grain and the combined classes of short- and medium-grain rice are projected at all-time highs. For long-grain rice, growing consumer preference for Asian aromatic rice, such as jasmine rice from Thailand, has increased import purchases. In addition, the United States has been importing a much smaller volume of regular milled long-grain rice from South American suppliers. Increasing imports are spurred by reduced production in California, where a second consecutive year of drought has reduced the size of the rice harvest. The California rice crop is forecast down 38 percent from a year earlier and is expected to be the smallest crop since 1977/78.