Top 10 Largest Rice Producing Countries

Asian countries produce the most rice worldwide, while countries in Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East having shown considerable increase in rice consumption and demand. The top 10 rice producing countries in the world today are India, China, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Thailand, Vietnam, Burma, the Philippines, Cambodia, and Pakistan. These countries are also among the top rice consumers of the world, and combine to account for around 90% of the world’s rice consumption. Both figures have been on the rise in the last couple of decades, and experts believe that there will be little or no decline in these numbers in the coming years.

In countries located in other regions of the world, such as sub-Saharan Africa, rice is considered the fastest-growing staple food, with the annual per capita rice consumption nearly doubling since the 1970s and onwards. A few decades ago, both urban and rural residents of the countries in sub-Saharan Africa were only eating rice during special occasions. In recent years, however, they have switched to eating it daily, opting for it over other, native crops like cassava, sweet potatoes, and yams. Examples of countries exhibiting this change are Niger, Tanzania, and Nigeria, where populations and incomes have been shown to be on the rise over the past couple of decades.

In the Caribbean and Latin America, an increase of about 40% has been observed in rice consumption during the last twenty years. Again, this is attributed to steadily increasing incomes, as well as continued population growth. Another region showing a significant increase of rice consumption is the Middle East, as well as the United States and members of the European Union. The latter’s increase is attributed partly to immigration from countries where rice is more often consumed, along with the increased globalization of the food availability and tastes.