Australia could run out of home-grown RICE within weeks as drought hits farmers – forcing shoppers to rely on foreign imports
- NSW rice growers predict no local rice in Australian supermarkets by January
- Lack of rice blamed on drought, water allocations and Covid-19 panic-buying
- Locally grown rice is next expected to be available again in bulk by mid-2021
Australia could run out of locally grown rice by January next year after a combination of droughts, low allocations of irrigation water and Covid-19 panic buying created a shortage.
According to forecasts from SunRice, who currently produce 98 per cent of Australian rice, all rice on supermarket shelves will be imported from early 2021.
‘We will still have rice on the shelves but that’s because we are an international network now and we can source rice from other countries,’ Riverina based rice farmer Gillian Kirkup told the ABC.
‘Personally, we grew 34 hectares of rice last year where we used to grow a couple of hundred hectares.
‘So our income for the last couple of years, virtually nothing.’
Riverina based farmers Ainsley and Rob Massina (pictured above) have not been able to produce any rice for two years
Work has been slow going on countless Australian farms this year due to drought conditions and varied allocations of irrigation water (stock image)
Mrs Kirkup’s husband and fellow farmer Barry Kirkup, added that residing in dry areas without irrigation also makes it increasingly difficult to survive or make a decent income.
Fellow Riverina rice farmer Rob Massina said life in the south-western agriculture region of NSW comes with many challenges.
With no water allocation for the past two years, he was unable to grow any rice on his farm.
Instead, Mr Massina and his wife Ainsley focused on other crops and their herd of 3000 plus sheep.
In an upside, both Mr Kirkup and Mr Massina have successfully planted rice in recent weeks, which will be harvested around April 2021.
Higher volumes of Australian-grown rice are then expected to re-appear on supermarket shelves by June or July next year.
Federal Water Minister Keith Pitt said rice will always be a vital industry in Australia, but 2020 has posed monumental challenges.
‘Rice, like many other crops, is susceptible to the cyclical nature of Australia’s prolonged periods of dry and wet climates,’ he said in a statement.
Don’t expect to see popular rice products (pictured above) from Sunrise in plentiful supply in Australian supermarkets in 2021 (stock image)
Locally produced rice in Australia will be in very limited supply come 2021 (stock image)
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