What’s ahead for California’s rice growers? Sabrina Hill takes a look.
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Rice is an important crop in California, and in fact, our state is the largest producer of short and medium grain japonica rice in the nation. We produce more than 2-million tons of rice annually, which means with all the type of rice considered, California is the second largest rice-growing state in the US.
And for rice growers this year, most of whom are in the Sacramento Valley, the USDA says they can expect 2013 to be much like 2012. International prices play a big part in what rice producers here get for their crops. California’s rice is exported to Asia, the Middle East, and Mediterranean markets. Glauber says we’re waiting to see what happens in a few areas of export. And all that means, it’s hard to predict what California and other rice producers can expect this year. But overall, it looks like they will see a year very similar to 2012.
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