Conservation and rice farming have always gone together, especially here at Live Oak Farm in Vermilion Parish. The farm’s owners, the Godchaux family, have been an integral part of the Louisiana and U.S. rice industries for multiple generations as original founders of Riviana Foods. The family continues to produce rice on this picturesque property of mossy covered oaks and prairie marshland south of Abbeville, located along the Vermilion River, just north of the Intracoastal Waterway.

Al Awees, the private company that took over much of the food purchasing for the government of Iraq in 2021, made two purchases of 44,000 metric tons each of U.S. rice as the 2022 calendar year ended.

The total of 88,000 metric tons may not seem like much given that U.S. rice exports are expected to total around 3 million metric tons in the 2022-23 marketing year, but the symbolism may be more important than the actual amount.

The 26th Annual Conservation Systems Cotton & Rice Conference (Con-Till) was held here this week. The conference first convened in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1998. Initially the meeting focused on conservation related to rice and cotton production but has expanded to include varied production topics while adding corn, soybeans, irrigation, precision ag, and regenerative ag presentations.

USDA’s Economic Research Service has reduced its forecast of U.S. rice exports for the 2022-2023 marketing year by 2.0 million hundredweight to 69.0 million hundredweight, the lowest since 1991-92.

The revision, which was announced during the USA Rice Outlook Conference in Austin, Texas, is expected to add to the economic woes faced by U.S. rice producers due to the ongoing low rice prices and high input costs that occurred in 2022.

Tim Walker may not be from Louisiana, but he certainly has some vested interests in the Pelican State’s rice industry. As general manager of HorizonAg, his company has championed the Clearfield, then, subsequently, the Provisia systems that have proven to be vital to Louisiana’s rice industry. He touted these offerings from the HorizonAg display booth at the 2022 U.S.A. Rice Outlook Conference held Dec. 7-9.

BAGHDAD, IRAQ – Just prior to the end of 2022, Al Awees from Iraq followed up on their initial purchase of 44,000 tons of U.S. rice with another purchase for the same amount, bringing the sales total for the 2022-23 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to 88,000 tons in the past month.

Commencing in June 2021, Al Awees was officially appointed to handle rice tenders for the Iraqi government. Eventual purchase of an additional 112,000 tons will satisfy the 2022-23 MOU total of 200,000 tons.

Iraq, which typically relies on imports for 90 percent of its rice consumption needs, has recently increased its consumption levels and hence its imports. Iraq’s rice imports averaged 1.1 – 1.2 million tons a few years ago but have now surged to nearly 2 million tons. Local production has moderately increased, from about 120,000 tons to 250,000 tons this past year, and domestic consumption increased from 1.3 million tons to 1.7 million tons in 2022.

Iraq operates a public distribution system where the government provides certain essential food products, such as rice, oil, wheat flour, sugar, and milk. Nearly 90 percent of Iraqi households receive ration cards for subsidized food commodities. The amount of rice in these ration cards has increased from 12kg per person annually in 2017 to 33kg per person in 2022.

“As we enter the New Year, we’re thankful for these sales to Iraq and their two-fold success of bolstering the U.S. industry and providing healthy, nutritious U.S. rice to the Iraqi population,” said USA Rice President & CEO Betsy Ward.