The smell of success

A combine harvests rice in Lonoke County, Arkansas, in October 2021.

Other battles

Many growers also experienced high levels of peck damage in rice that is often associated with rice stinkbugs. The industry standard is known as 55-70 — meaning that in a given bushel of rice, 55% of it is head rice, which is the whole kernel rice grain. And 70% is total rice, which is everything that remains after the hull and bran have been removed. Growers are paid a premium for exceeding the whole kernel standard but are discounted for falling below the standard.

“This year, both milling numbers — head rice and total rice — were lower,” Hardke said. “We know that things like long stretches of high nighttime temperatures during the grain fi lling process can lead to thinner kernels.

“So now it’s a bulk density equation — they’re just a little thinner meaning less total rice. Having a thinner kernel can also make them more prone to breakage meaning fewer whole kernels.”

Hardke said the immediate impacts will be felt by growers, who will be paid less for their crop, and by buyers, who will have to mill more rice to fi ll existing grain orders. He said consumers will likely not see any impact in terms of product availability in the short term. On the world stage

While much of the world faced new struggles in 2021, global rice production — and consumption — continued to increase.

Alvaro Durand-Morat, assistant professor for the Division of Agriculture, co-authored the “2021 Markets in Review” December report for the Fryar Price Risk Management Center of Excellence.

He found that global rice production is expected to reach more than 511 million metric tons in 2022, representing a 10% increase over the past decade.

Most of that production, Durand-Morat said, has come from increased yield, as rice acreage has only slightly increased. Global rice demand is estimated at 509 million metric tons, just short of projected production.

Durand-Morat said there is some market uncertainty for U.S. long-grain rice exports, due largely to political instability in Haiti. The country, which saw a massive weather-related disaster and the assassination of its president in July, is the destination for about 45% of U.S. long-grain rice exports.