U.S. Long Grain Rice Harvest Moving North
US RICE PRODUCERS
KATY, TEXAS
Harvest is progressing swiftly in Louisiana, and we can say it has begun in earnest in Arkansas. Initial reports coming out of the Louisiana crop leave us with “cautious optimism” for milling yields; it is still too early to tell in Arkansas. Texas has also harvested the majority of its crop, with milled quality pending, but perceived as average. The weekly crop progress report shows Louisiana at 65% harvested, Texas at 57%, Mississippi at 8%, and Arkansas at 4%. Missouri and California, like normal, still have a few weeks. Crop condition is holding steady, with Good/Excellent still reporting at 75%. In northeast Arkansas, few farmers, if any, are cutting, but next week should be active as will be Missouri.
On the ground, getting old crop out of the farm bins to make room for the new crop hasn’t improved since our report last week. Much of the rice has been purchased by mills but hasn’t been shipped yet due to weak demand. This has resulted in severe backlogs at mills to move paddy that they aren’t ready for, all while the paddy itself is suffering from poor quality and bugs. A terrible situation to be dealing with in the midst of an already challenging marketing environment. We hope this pressure will alleviate soon, and things will return to “normal” with a focus on milling a quality crop. Prices for the new crop coming out of one cooperative are $5.11/bushel before deductions, another indication of the lack of demand.
A recentGAIN report in Panamareports that on July 31, President Mulino signed a decree that declares rice as a national security crop, and shields Panama’s rice producers from international competition. This decree effectively closes Panama’s market to imported rice from June 1-December 31 this year. This does not apply to jasmine, basmati, or parboiled rice. This is pertinent because in 2025, 9,044 metric tons of U.S. rice may enter Panama duty-free through the U.S.-Panama Trade Promotion Agreement. At the same time, we understand one vessel of Brazilian paddy (25,000 tons) is arriving in Panama duty-free for the “social feeding program”. How Panama manages their domestic demand versus production levels remains to be seen.
In Asia, prices continue to suffer in Thailand, with Thai 5% now dropping below $360 pmt. India also softened some down to $380 pmt, while Vietnam has remained somewhat resilient at $390 pmt. It has been well over a year since we have seen such a wide divergence of pricing between Thailand and Vietnam. It can be attributed to weak demand for historical Thai buyers, while Viet customers are at least maintaining their buying patterns, thereby putting the brakes on the downward slide.
Theweekly USDA Export Sales reportshows net sales of 26,900 MT this week were primarily for Saudi Arabia (10,400 MT), Haiti (8,100 MT, including decreases of 7,200 MT), Mexico (4,300 MT), Taiwan (2,000 MT), and Canada (1,100 MT, including decreases of 700 MT). Exports of 63,300 MT were primarily to Haiti (17,500 MT), Venezuela (14,900 MT), Japan (13,200 MT), Saudi Arabia (9,800 MT), and Mexico (4,800 MT). ∆
US RICE PRODUCERS