Rice production in the United States started in the Carolinas and Georgia and by the early 1700s the U.S. was exporting rice. Rice was very labor intensive and somewhat dependent on slave labor. After the civil war, rice acreage started heading west around the Mississippi river and eventually mechanized farming allowed the industry to flourish in that area. By 1912, rice was being grown in California.

All rice in the United States is grown in flooded fields. Only certain types of soils are able to hold water and hold the weight of machinery. An abundant and cheap supply of water is needed. The Mississippi delta has proven to be an ideal location for rice and most rice in the U.S. is grown in that area. Arkansas is the number one producer of rice in the U.S. today. Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas and Missouri also produce rice. The old flood basin for the Sacramento River in Northern California has also proven to be a good location for rice, and California is now the number two producer of rice in the U.S. Following is a listing of average (last 3 to 4 years) production by type for the states involved in rice:

The most common rice in the U.S. is southern long grain rice. This indica type of rice is also the most common rice consumed in the world. In the U.S., most of the long grain rice is sold as white rice, but a substantial percentage is further processed and sold as parboiled rice. In years past most of the white rice was exported to Cuba, Iran, and Iraq. Political problems have caused the U.S. to lose all of these markets. Today the largest export stable markets for long grain white rice are to Mexico, Haiti, and Canada. Long grain brown is exported to Europe. The U.S. government also exports large quantities of this rice for food aid type projects. The Saudi Arabian market takes large quantites of parboiled rice. Long grain white rice is by far the most popular rice in the domestic table rice (consumer market) market and a great deal is sold into the domestic market. The Chinese and Hispanic ethnic markets prefer long grain white rice. Parboiled rice is most often used in the industrial and food service markets because of its ease of preparation and durability. It does well in canned and frozen foods. Most restaurants serve parboiled rice.

Some southern medium grain rice is sold into the domestic table rice market in the south, but not much. Much of it goes to the consumer market in Puerto Rico and a great deal of it goes into the industrial market to make rice crispies and beer. Because it is, usually, the cheapest rice in the U.S., some of it goes into U.S. government food aid programs.

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About a third of all California medium grain rice (calrose) is exported to Japan. Then a large quantity is exported to Turkey and Jordan. Calrose is ideal for the domestic industrial markets (rice crispies and beer), but in recent years has been high in price due to pressures from demand in Japan. This type of rice is preferred by the Japanese and Korean ethnic markets in the U.S., but these markets do not take much product. In recent years, more and more specialty short grain varieties of higher quality for table rice purposes have been produced in California for the domestic market.

There is a large domestic industrial use of rice for beer. In particular, the largest user is Anheuser Busch for use in it’s Budweiser beer. In years past this demand was supplied with broken rice. But more stringent quality requirements and a shortage of broken supply have caused the beer industry to buy mostly whole grain rice today. Manufacturers of rice crispy type products also consume a great deal of whole grain, as do manufactures of soups and frozen products. Broken rice generated from milling white rice is generally sold for use in rice flour, dog feed, and beer. Rice flour goes into applications such as baby foods, extruded rice crispies, cereals, snacks, and coatings.