Contemporary Global Rice Economies: Structural Changes of Rice Production/Consumption and Trade.

Abstract

Production technology for rice in the world has been advancing. The supply curve has shifted to the rightward and become flatter over time as well as the scale of economies have been enlarged in many countries. This has led to a great increase in yield per ha. and greater production globally. Accordingly, the rice prices have been becoming more stable and cheaper over time in real term despite of price hike around 2010. Potential of rice production increases for the future is quite large, while demand for table rice has been somewhat stagnant in major producing countries. Because the technology advancement is overwhelming in all food production, it would be hard to expect a global food shortage in the future, unless man sabotages. Developments of new products using rice for functional food may be important for the rice industries, therefore. Meanwhile, in the global rice economies, japonica rice markets are becoming phenomenal in high demand relative to indica. This may be possibly due to a globally long-lasting booming of Japanese restaurants featured by Sushi. Demand for japonica rice has been so strong that the prices of japonica rices are about double of indica rice. Because of short in supply relative to demand for japonica rice marketed globally, there are emerging japonica rice production in many rice producing countries shifting from indica rice to japonica, although the japonica rice production in each new area is still small.