Mississippi Delta farmers left with unsold rice as prices tumble

Farmers across Mississippi’s Delta are struggling to sell harvested rice after prices fell below production costs, and some have even considered letting the grain rot. Jack Westerfield of Merigold said he could not sell 2.2 million pounds of rice and has contemplated dumping it. Rice futures declined about 30 percent over the last year after India eased export restrictions in late 2024, a move the article says flooded world markets, and buyers in Latin America have shifted toward other varieties.

The Mississippi State University Extension Service reported the value of the state’s row crops, including rice, fell 9 percent from 2024 to 2025, and farm bankruptcies, while still low, are on the rise. Westerfield said storing unsold rice in bins left no room for soybeans, preventing him from benefiting when soybean prices later rose.

Wayne Dulaney of Clarksdale said he has more than 200,000 bushels of rice (about 9 million pounds) in bins and losses of around $600,000 in 2025. The article notes high local costs for irrigation, compressed planting and harvest windows, and concentrated labor needs as contributors to farmers’ financial strain.

At a Mississippi Farm Bureau meeting, participants floated a government program to pay producers to destroy harvested rice, similar to a program from the 1980s.

Key Topics

Business, Rice, Mississippi Delta, Jack Westerfield, Wayne Dulaney, India