According to Fitch Solutions, rice production is declining in many countries from China to the US to the European Union, and the global rice market could face the largest supply deficit in 2023 in 20 years.
Charles Hart, commodity analyst at Fitch Solutions, said in a statement: “The biggest evidence of a global supply deficit is rice prices at a 10-year high.”
With rice prices expected to remain at current high levels until 2024, Fitch Solutions predicted that the average rice price since the beginning of the year has been 17.30 dollars/cwt and that the price will only decline to 14.50 dollars/cwt in 2024.
According to the report, the global rice supply deficit will be 8.7 million tons in the 2022-23 season. This will be the largest deficit since the 2003-2004 season. In that season, there was a deficit of 18.6 million tons.