The rice industry is in trouble

The International Rice Festival, known as “Risò”, has just come to an end. The event was held from 11 to 13 September 2026 in Vercelli, one of Europe’s leading rice-growing areas, and was dedicated to the world of Italian rice from a gastronomic, agricultural and commercial perspective.

It was an opportunity to take stock of the current state of the market, and the assessment was stark: the Italian rice supply chain is going through a severe economic crisis, compounded by a particularly difficult 2026 growing season.

Main issues:

• Climate crisis and water availability: rice cultivation depends heavily on the availability of water for irrigation. Drought and heatwaves have made the 2026 growing season particularly difficult, especially in the main rice-growing areas of Piedmont and Lombardy.
• Rising costs: as in many other sectors, significant cost increases are being recorded, especially for energy and fertilisers needed to run agricultural businesses. The Italian National Rice Authority has reported that overall production costs have risen by more than 50%.
• Uncontrolled imports: imports of rice from outside the EU are unfortunately increasing, particularly from Southeast Asia, including countries such as Cambodia and Myanmar. Much of this rice enters the market duty-free or at reduced tariffs and is not subject to the same environmental and safety standards imposed on European producers.

All of this is leading to a sharp fall in prices: paddy rice quotations on commodity exchanges have dropped by as much as 40-50% for some varieties, particularly Arborio, Carnaroli and similar types, compared with the same period of the previous year.

Some of the proposals discussed:

• Putting pressure on European institutions: agricultural organisations are calling for greater reciprocity, as imported products are not necessarily subject to the same production and environmental standards imposed on European farmers.
• Investing in new technologies: promoting a broader and more modern approach to water resource management through a new model of water “governance” based on cooperation between institutions, local communities, the agricultural sector and businesses.
• Developing a national supply chain for Italian aromatic rice: creating an alternative to Basmati rice, which is widely consumed in Italy today and is almost entirely imported from Asia (India and Pakistan). The aim is to capture part of a market segment currently dominated by imported products by promoting an Italian aromatic rice variety known as Apollo, a long-grain, translucent rice with characteristics similar to Basmati.