Global rice production introduction

Global rice production is expected to exceed 500 million tons. The report predicts that, globally, the COVID-19 recession will add at least 83 million people to the number of hungry people and could add 132 million by 2020.Rice is one of the most widely distributed crops in the world and can be processed to produce edible rice.Globally, the world rice yield in 2019/2020 will be 496 million tons, down from the previous year, mainly due to the decrease in the global rice harvest area.The US Department of Agriculture expects global rice production to hit a record high of more than 500m tonnes by 2020/21.


                                    Table 1: Global rice production

Rice production areas in the world are mainly distributed in Asia, with planting area accounting for 90% of the world and yield accounting for 91% of the world, among which China and India are mainly distributed.In 2019/20, China ranked first in the world with 147 million tons of rice.It was followed by India, which produced 118m tonnes in 2020/20.The two countries together produce about 53 percent of the world's rice.
 
Table 2: Global rice production

In recent years, global rice consumption has been on the rise, reaching 491 million tons in 2019-20.It is worth noting that China and India are not only big producers but also big consumers, consuming about half of the world's rice.Among them, China accounted for 29.53 percent of global rice consumption in 2020/20, while India accounted for 20.77 percent.China and India are both populous countries with large demand for food.In addition, the top rice consumption rankings are also Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, the Philippines and other countries, all concentrated in Asia.

                             Table 3: Global rice consumption

            Table 4: Proportion of global rice consumption
From the perspective of the global rice trade, the global rice import and export market has fluctuated in recent years. In 2019/20, the global rice import volume was 396,000 tons and the export volume was 41.5 million tons, both decreased compared with the same period of last year, mainly caused by the decline in the rice trade of India and Thailand.Thailand's rice export market has been hit by an artificially high rice purchase price under the rice support program.Geopolitical issues and the economic sanctions Iran faces have curbed India's rice exports.

                  Table 5: Global Import and Export of rice


 

But India and Thailand are still the world's biggest rice exporters, and Vietnam makes up a third of the global rice export market.Among them, India exported 10.1 million tons of rice in 2019/20, accounting for 24.34%.Thailand exported 69,000 tons, accounting for 16.63%;Vietnam exported 6.7 million tons, accounting for 16.14 percent.

From the perspective of import market, the Philippines, China and THE EU are the top 3 importers of rice in the world in 2019/20, with import volume of 2.5 million tons, 2.4 million tons and 2.2 million tons respectively, accounting for 6.31%, 6.06% and 5.56% respectively, accounting for 17.9% in total.Compared with export markets, the world's rice importers are more dispersed.