Australian rice production has declined spectacularly this year due to drought constraining irrigated water supplies with the current crop now being harvested is expected to yield around 18,000 MT which would be barely 1% of record output in the year 2001 of 1.64 million MT.

According to figures supplied by the government's Australian Bureau of Agriculture and Resource Economics, or Abare, Australian rice exports have also plummeted from a peak of 681,000 MT in 1997-98 to dismal levels.