This year the National Conservation System held it's 25th Annual Cotton & Rice Conference The US Rice Producers Association is proud to be a primary sponsor of the conference every year along with Cotton, Inc. Conservation system needs were foremost in the planning of this conference. Never before in the history of this conference since its inception in Little Rock in 1998 have so many conservation system agricultural leaders and innovative farmers come together to share their experiences and knowledge with each other and attendees. The cutting edge of research, real life experiences and examples from successful farmers was highlighted in every presentation. Through dialogue and presentations farmers learned from the leaders and experts in open communication. The USRPA has been the major sponsor on behalf of the U.S. rice farming industry for over 20 years.

Amongst the 100+ speakers, USRPA hosted a very well attended breakout session titled, US Rice Producers: Elected by Rice Farmers to Serve Rice Farmers. Rice Producers, Alex Clark, from Missouri, Mark Pousson from Louisiana, Neal Stoesser and Dennis DeLaughter from Texas spent close to an hour going over the history of how USRPA was formed and why the need for a farmer led, farmer focused organization is as relevant today as when the first group of farmers started the organization over 20 years ago. 

During the luncheon, US Congressman Rick Crawford welcomed the audience to his home state of Arkansas via a recorded video message. Vernie Hubert, Principal at Cornerstone Government Affairs in Washington, DC. shared details concerning farm and trade policy issues of concern currently on the Hill. Vernie Hubert has over 25 years of experience working with the federal government with a focus on agricultural policy, and is former senior professional staff member in both the U.S. House of Representative and the U.S. Senate and now works with the US Rice Producers Association to represent the views of U.S. rice farmers in DC.

The US Rice Producers Association and the Missouri Rice Council's booths were front and center as attendees entered the conference area amongst over 50 booths. Attendees were glad to have a chance to visit with their fellow producers and ag industry representatives during the social reception sponsored by the US Rice Producers Association on Tuesday evening. Grassfire band played in the background while attendees networked and watched as the door prizes were awarded. Through the uncertainty of Omicron and the impending winter storm, the conference had a great turnout and the consensus was that people were glad to start going back to in person meetings.

The market is seeming to find a nice balance as it approaches the “deadline” for planting intentions. Stable domestic business coupled with continued Haitian demand is keeping the mills running and the cash prices afloat. Much of this stability, while good for the market, can be attributed to the expectation of another short crop—this one likely more than 10% off from last year’s crop, which was 15% off from the year before. Prices would likely be much softer if there were plans for a larger plant.

Prices in Texas remain firm, and have bumped to $15-$15.10/cwt. Louisiana remains at $13.90, while Mississippi, Arkansas, and Missouri all remain at $14.75/cwt. Talk of new crop pricing is working its way into most conversations, but it is still a bit premature to make any firm decisions or quotations as of yet. Only a few more weeks though, and seed sales will tell the story of the coming year.

The FAO Rice Price index fell by 1.6% in December, and then rebounded 3.1% in January, ending at 101.4. This is the highest indexed price in seven months, but still 11% below the indexed price from one year ago.

The weekly USDA Export Sales report shows gross sales in the amount of 157,200 mt, the lion’s share of which was long grain rough sales totaling 76,900 tons and medium/shot grain milled totaling 68,700 tons. Mexico (44,600 tons), Nicaragua (30,000 tons) and El Salvador (2,300 tons) bought the long grain rough. Long Grain Brown had a good week too, with the United Kingdom purchasing 10,000 tons along with Canada’s 200 tons. Long grain milled was only 1,300 tons sold to Canada and Mexico. Medium/short grain sales were dominated by Japan’s 49,000 ton purchase, along with South Korea’s 18,100 tons, Canada’s smaller purchase. Exports were a solid 67,700 tons, with half of it being rough rice to Mexico. Haiti also received 15,300 tons of long grain milled. Japan took 13,400 tons of medium grain as well. 

The futures market shows average daily volume of 936, a 29% increase from last week. Open Interest is up to 8,820, a 6% increase from last week.

Appropriations Update

The current Continuing Resolution, which is funding the federal government at last year’s levels, is set to expire on February 18, 2022. The Chairman of Senate Appropriations, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), is trying to reach an agreement on “top-line” numbers so that the subcommittees may prepare an omnibus bill within the next few days to fund the government through the rest of this year. Amid ongoing talks between appropriators, at least one more CR is potentially expected to fund the government through March at FY21 levels. Although appropriators are trying to reach a deal for FY22, these talks are affecting FY23 and pushing back the FY23 appropriations process, with the President now expected to deliver his budget requests sometime in March, instead of February. In addition, the White House is expected to request a supplemental appropriations request to support ongoing response to the COVID Omicron variant, though it is unclear what form the request will take.

America COMPETES Act

The House is currently voting on H.R. 4521, the America Creating Opportunities for Manufacturing Pre-Eminence in Technology and Economic Strength (COMPETES) Act. The $250 billion package is aimed at investing in domestic research and manufacturing, with $45 billion to support supply-chain resilience and manufacturing of critical goods and $52 billion for semiconductor manufacturing and research. The bill also includes several provisions related to university research.

The bill’s sections related to agriculture are summarized below.

TITLE II – NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION FOR THE FUTURE

Includes advancing internet of thigs (IoT) for precision agriculture. The bill supports research to improve the use of advanced sensing systems in rural and agricultural areas, highlights improving productivity in agriculture as a goal for activities funded under the Advanced Technological Education program and supports a government accountability Office technology assessment of precision agriculture technologies.

SUBTITLE D – TRADE ADJUSTMENT ASSISTANCE FOR FARMERS

Under current law, TAA for Farmers includes unnecessarily strict eligibility criteria in order for a farmer to be eligible to receive benefits under the program. Farmers have described how difficult it was to demonstrate eligibility under this program. This section broadens eligibility. This section also increases the benefits available to farmers under the program, responding to criticism that the program has not provided enough benefit support to justify the time and resources required to demonstrate eligibility for the program. Further, these funding levels have not been increased since the program’s inception more than a decade ago. Thus, this section increases maximum available funding to a farmer from $12,000 to $36,000. Funding levels will automatically rise with inflation to ensure they do not remain stagnant.

Additionally, several agriculture-related amendments are being considered. Rep. Jackson submitted an amendment that would require the Secretary of State and Secretary of Agriculture to submit a report to Congress on foreign investments in the U.S. agriculture sector, prioritizing China. Rep. Craig, with bi-partisan support, offered an amendment that directs the newly created position of the Assistant Secretary for Supply Chain Resilience and Crisis Response to evaluate the stability of the Agriculture and Food System supply chain. It also directs the new Assistant Secretary to provide a report to Congress on vulnerabilities in this supply chain and ways to address those vulnerabilities.

Other agriculture-related amendments were not made in order.