MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Mercosur has a surplus production of three million tons of rice

Harvesting rice in Uruguay’s paddies

Uruguay which does not harvest transgenic rice has been consolidating as a growing European Union supplier and is a traditional provider for Mexico and Middle East countries such as Iran and Iraq.

According to the Uruguayan rice mills association sales are ensured until next July and exports are being dispatched normally to Mexico, Peru, Puerto Rico, EU plus Iran and Iraq.

What happens from then onwards is not clear since Uruguay’s production is mostly exported and Brazil which usually takes the surplus production, but Brazil this year had a most abundant crop.

According to Uruguay’s rice planters association the 2010/11 crop faces a world market with production exceeding consumption by 5 million tons, and for the fourth year running.

The US Department of Agriculture estimates that world consumption of rice this season will mark another record with an increase of 5.86% while production jumped 7.43%.

The previous season global consumption expanded 1.9% and supply 2.4%.

Global rice trade is expected to remain unchanged in the range of 30 to 31 million tons.

In Uruguay rice production is a most efficient crop: with only 1% of farmland it exports over 90% of the annual harvest and has become the world’s seventh exporter. The rest of the crop goes to seeds for the following season and just over 5% for domestic consumption.

The 2010/11 Uruguayan crop marked a record yield with over 8.000 kilos per hectare.