Rice

I thought I would give you some information about rice because I was absolutely amazed myself to find just how much is produced worldwide. It’s a food commodity that in Britain we tend to use as a side dish, normally just to mop up the sauce.

About 500 million tonnes of rice are produced each year and at least half of the world’s population eat rice as their staple food. This basically works out that for every single person living on earth, 65 kilos are produced a year.

Rice originated in India, which is still one of the world’s foremost growers. Today, over 100 million tonnes are produced there annually. This includes over 8000 different varieties. Rice was taken to China from India around 2000 BC. China has since become the world’s largest rice producer, producing over 180 million tonnes a year. That’s about a third of world production. The people of China eat about 80—100 kg (176-220 lb) per person a year. Rice was also introduced to Japan from China in the third century BC. Japan now produce about 15 million tonnes annually. Here are a few more countries who produce rice: Thailand, 20 million tonnes per annum; USA, 7—8 million tonnes per annum; Spain, 500,000 tonnes per annum. Other European countries produce rice, for example Greece and France produce approximately 100,000 tonnes each.