European rice cultivation is moving on increasingly shaky ground. Not due to a lack of demand, but rather to a growing competitive asymmetry that is calling into question the sector's industrial sustainability. The alarm has been raised by airi, while discussions are underway in Brussels on the future of the tariff concessions granted to the countries of Southeast Asia.
According to the association, the supply chain is exposed to a convergence of uncontrollable external factors: duty-free imports, oversupply on global markets, the strengthening of non-EU countries' competitiveness thanks to the devaluation of the dollar and the decline in maritime freight rates, as well as the increasingly evident effects of the climate crisis on European agricultural production.
The key turning point is the expiration of the EU safeguard clause, which had temporarily limited the import of rice at zero duty. With its expiration, imports from the main Asian producing countries have resumed growth, covering over 60% of European demand. This share, for the continental industry, represents a structural risk rather than a simple economic problem.
The problem isn't just one of quantity, but above all of value. The European market receives mostly pre-milled and packaged rice, at prices that fail to reflect the production, environmental, and social standards required of European operators. The prices speak for themselves: around €400 per ton for imported white rice, compared to the €800–1.000 needed to cover the costs of European varieties. In Italy, the same figure is equivalent to the price of raw paddy rice, before any industrial processing.
«This is not a cyclical crisis, but a trend that must be corrected before it becomes irreversible», underlines Mario Francese, president of Airi, who urged the Italian MEPs of the commission INTA In view of the vote on the reform of the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP). This mechanism, designed to support less developed countries, is currently at the center of heated debate due to its distorting effects on European agricultural supply chains.
The paradox is that demand for rice is booming. In ten years, EU consumption has risen 20%, reaching 2,6 million tons, while in Italy the increase has been even more marked, reaching approximately 450 tons. Driving this trend are new dietary patterns, the perception of rice as a light and digestible food, the spread of processed products with health benefits, and demographic changes linked to migration flows.
This growth, however, is increasingly benefiting European production. Currently, approximately 1,6 million tons of EU consumption comes from abroad, and over half of this volume enters duty-free. According to Airi, without a review of trade protection instruments, the risk is that rising consumption will continue to translate into a progressive marginalization of the European rice sector.
