Rice Price Up, USDA Says

Rice, a good deal for consumers over the last year, is getting more expensive and will stay that way into 1988 because of reduced supplies, according to Agriculture Department and trade officials.

Drought in South and Southeast Asia has dimmed the production outlook in major rice growing countries there, contributing to recent price surges, USDA said in a report released Thursday.

In addition, a plant disease has reduced production prospects in Arkansas, cutting into U.S. supplies, a rice analyst with a major cooperative said.

The result will be smaller world supplies during the next year and much higher prices, USDA said in its monthly “World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates” report.

USDA said U.S. broken kernel rice prices should average $4.20 to $5 per hundredweight in 1987-88 (August-July), compared to $3.80 last year. Just last month, the department estimated that 1987-88 prices would be about $3.60 to $4.40.