Export Trade In Rice
p. 37 · Read in the full issue
Australia Builds Valuable Export Trade In Rice
The Australian rice industry, established 36 years ago, has built up a substantial export trade to the Pacific Islands, New Guinea, New Zealand, Canada and the United Kingdom.
FI 959-60, Australia exported 265,840 cwt. of uncleaned rice and 1,055,861 cwt. of cleaned (milled) rice. Value of total export was £A3,428,265. Of these amounts the Pacific Islands imported 4,835 cwt. (£A15,193) of brown rice and 114,299 cwt. (£A382,186) of milled rice.
Australia’s “rice bowl” is the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area of New South Wales, a massive system of canals spreading out over 600 square miles. Here, about 1,000 growers have sown an area of 49,210 acres, averaging a yield of three tons an acre. A vigorous research pro gramme at experimental stations in the area is boosting yields still further.
The Australian industry, built up on the short grain Japonica rice of the Caloro variety, is heavily mechanised.
Marketing has been streamlined through a grower-elected marketing board which buys all paddy rice direct from the paddock, allocates it to the rice mills, which in turn process, package and then market the rice.
Since 1955, rice-growing has been developed in Australia’s Northern Territory and progress has been promising. The Territory may not provide any great addition to total Australian production in the next few years, but it could become important in building up rice export trade to Asia.