By Fred Miller
U of A System Division of Agriculture
Delta Farm Press
The COVID-19 pandemic created a spike in global rice prices in the second quarter of 2020, according to a new University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture report. Since then, rice prices have remained higher than expected despite ample rice stocks and a record 2020 global rice production.
“Most commodity prices went down during the pandemic because of lower demand,” said Alvaro Durand-Morat, assistant professor of agricultural economics and agribusiness for the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, the Division of Agriculture’s research arm. “But rice went the other way.”