Biotech Updates

Tsunami in Japan Unlikely to Impact Global Rice Situation

March 25, 2011

After an earthquake and tsunami hit the northeastern coast of Honshu island, 1.5 percent of Japan's total rice area has been covered with water. The Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that the incident has no immediate impact on rice production since rice was harvested last fall. It is still too early to declare the effects of salinization and infrastructure damage in this year's planting which is about to start in April. Increased planting in other areas of Japan could compensate for the loss in the impacted fields. FAS also reported that since Japan holds enough stocks of rice, only small amounts were exported as food aid, thus there is no significant impact on the global rice situation.

Read the FAS report at http://www.fas.usda.gov/info/IATR/IATR%20Japan%20Rice%202011.pdf.