Back-to-back years of severe drought, water costs through the roof, and a global pandemic has made for trying times for most in the agriculture sector.

When panic buying peaked in Australia, we saw a number of products in short supply including rice.

SunRice Chief Executive Rob Gordon told rural editor Eddie Summerfield it put a strain on supply.

“Orders go to about 250% of normal, which pulled through all of the inventory we had on hand, and we had trouble keeping up with it,” Mr Gordon said.

The 2019 crop was the second smallest on record at 54,000 tonnes, down by 91 percent year on year.

It means Australia is likely to run out of locally grown rice by Christmas.

“With demand levels at the moment we’re likely to run out of Australian rice before the next harvest, probably around Christmas time we think,” Mr Gordon said.

Listen to the full interview above or Subscribe to the National Rural News podcast: http://bit.ly/RuralNewsPodcast