Rice: Characteristics
Long, whole, translucent: what makes rice worth more
What this tab covers The supply and physical characteristics of the commodity. Supply: current production, inventories and stocks, capacity utilisation, geographic and producer concentration, how fast supply responds to price, the project pipeline and capital spending, and logistics and export flows. Material: the physical and chemical properties that set its grade, price and end uses (for example purity and conductivity for metals, API gravity, sulfur and energy content for fuels, moisture, protein and fibre quality for crops).Supply volume characteristics
| Characteristic | Figure | What it means | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Current production volume | about 820 Mt paddy (FAOSTAT 2024); 545.7 Mt milled in 2025/26 and 533.1 Mt forecast for 2026/27 | Asia grows about nine-tenths of the crop. India (26.6%) and China (25.3%) each grow about a quarter of world paddy. | FAOSTAT 2024; USDA WASDE Oct 2026; USDA PSD |
| Inventory and stock levels | world ending stocks 204.2 Mt milled (2025/26), 38.3% of use, about 140 days of consumption | China holds 105.5 Mt, about 52% of world stocks, mostly in Sinograin and provincial reserves. India holds 59.0 Mt (USDA), and the FCI central pool had 39.05 Mt of rice on 1 September 2026 plus 30.75 Mt of unmilled paddy, against a 1 October buffer norm of 10.25 Mt. Stocks outside China and India are thin. | USDA WASDE Oct 2026; FCI via Business Today, 8 Oct 2026; DFPD buffer norms 2015 |
| Capacity utilisation | not published for world rice milling | Mill capacity is not reported in a consistent world series. In India the binding constraint is storage, not milling: the central pool held nearly four times its buffer norm in September 2026, and surplus rice was sold to distilleries (6.35 Mt, June 2025 to June 2026). | FCI via Business Today, Oct 2026; content of this tile (FCI ethanol sales) |
| Geographic and producer concentration | top country India 26.6%, top-3 (India, China, Bangladesh) 59.2%, HHI 1,520 (paddy, 2024); exports: India 33.6%, top-3 64.3% of value | Production is moderately concentrated but trade is more so. Thailand (18.6%) and Pakistan (12.1%) follow India in export value. No company holds a large share; state agencies (FCI, Sinograin, Bulog) dominate stocks. | FAOSTAT 2024; UN Comtrade 2024 |
| Supply elasticity | short-run moderate (one season; two or three crops a year in the tropics); long-run limited by water and land | Farmers can switch area within a season, and Asian double cropping lets output respond within months. Expansion is capped by irrigation water, with falling water tables in Punjab. Policy (MSP, export bans) moves traded supply faster than farming does. | USDA; IRRI Rice Knowledge Bank (indicative) |
| Project pipeline and CapEx | no large capacity projects; growth comes from yield and policy | World milled output is forecast to dip from 545.7 Mt (2025/26) to 533.1 Mt (2026/27). India's KMS 2026-27 paddy procurement estimate is 70.86 Mt against 72.07 Mt in KMS 2025-26. Direct-seeded rice and new varieties are spreading, but no named capacity additions are tracked. | USDA PSD; Business Today; GKToday |
| Logistics and export flows | about 58.5 Mt traded in 2025/26, about 11% of output | Main routes: India (Kakinada, Kandla, Mundra) to West Africa, the Gulf and Southeast Asia; Thailand (Bangkok, Laem Chabang) and Vietnam (Mekong ports) to the Philippines, Indonesia and Africa. Bagged and break-bulk cargoes plus containers for basmati. Kakinada port congestion and Indian export curbs (2022-2024) were the main bottlenecks. | USDA WASDE Oct 2026; UN Comtrade 2024 |
Material characteristics Agricultural / soft commodity
Rice is sold by grain type, milling degree and broken share. Buyers pay for long, whole, translucent grains with the right cooking texture, which is set by amylose content. Moisture decides whether paddy and rice store safely. Basmati commands a premium only if it meets length, shape and aroma tests. Head rice yield at milling sets how much saleable rice each tonne of paddy gives.
| Property | Value / specification | Why it matters | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Moisture | 14% maximum for milled rice in Indian procurement; Codex allows up to 15% | Wetter grain heats, moulds and loses weight in storage | FCI uniform specifications; Codex Standard 198-1995 (indicative) |
| Broken grains | Thai 5% = up to 5% brokens; FCI raw rice Grade A up to 25% brokens, parboiled up to 16% | Sets the export grade and price; 100% brokens sell at a discount for ethanol, brewing and feed | Thai Rice Standard; FCI specifications (indicative) |
| Milling out-turn | 67 kg rice per 100 kg paddy (raw), 68 kg (parboiled) | Decides miller margins and the paddy-to-rice conversion used in procurement | FCI out-turn ratio |
| Grain length and shape (basmati) | milled basmati average length above 6.61 mm and length/breadth ratio above 3.5 | Grain that fails the test cannot be sold as basmati, which earns a large premium | India basmati standard (FSSAI / APEDA), indicative |
| Amylose content | waxy 0-2%, low 10-20%, intermediate 20-25%, high above 25% | Controls stickiness: low-amylose japonica for East Asia, intermediate indica for South Asia | IRRI grain quality classes (indicative) |
| Chalkiness and head rice | export grades limit chalky and damaged kernels; head rice is whole grain at least three-quarters of full length | Chalky grain breaks in milling and looks poor, cutting price | USDA FGIS rice standards (indicative) |