Information sheet: History of the New South Wales Rice Industry

The first rice farmers in New South Wales saw the benefits of collectively organising the rice industry in NSW. The rice farmers knew that this would give them the power to market all of the rice, as well as the capacity to negotiate with the government and community on issues related to rice growing. The Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area Ricegrowers Co-operative Society was established in 1925. The Co-operative's aim was to organise the handling, storage and marketing of rice crops for the rice farmers. Initially, the new Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area Ricegrowers Co-operative Society could not afford its own mill to process the rice grain. Therefore they began selling the rice grain to private, city-based milling firms. Together, these milling firms formed the Millers' Association. They began a large profit making venture, which was to the detriment of the Co-operative, and therefore the rice farmers, as they were charging big money to mill rice.

Australian Rice Growing region

In 1927, the Australian Government applied a duty on imported rice. The imposition of the duty came about because imported rice was far cheaper than Australian rice. At the same time the NSW Government agreed to prevent rice production occurring outside the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area. As a result, the Millers' Association were displeased and threatened to stop processing all rice grain grown in the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area. So in 1928 the rice farmers petitioned the NSW Government. The rice farmers successfully lobbied to form a marketing board under the Marketing of Primary Products Act 1928 (NSW) to alleviate the monopoly the Millers' Association had on the processing of rice.

The Rice Marketing Board for the State of New South Wales (RMB) was established. The Rice Marketing Board's aims were to:

  • store paddy rice
  • negotiate prices with rice millers
  • pay rice growers
  • organise rice seed production
  • promote rice consumption

The private millers, in the meantime, decided to process rice grain imported from other countries despite achieving self-sufficiency in Australia. This, together with the Great Depression of 1929, led to the collapse of the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area Ricegrowers Co-operative Society in 1930.

Following the collapse of the co-operative and the continued need for protection, the rice farmers decided to form the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area Ricegrowers Association, which later became the Ricegrowers' Association of Australia. This new association was formed to protect the interests of rice farmers when dealing with:

In 1950, the Ricegrowers' Association of Australia formed a new co-operative, the Ricegrowers' Co-operative Mills Limited which became the Ricegrowers Cooperative Limited. In 2005, the Ricegrowers Cooperative Limited converted to a company and is now known as Ricegrowers Limited. Ricegrowers Limited trades today as SunRice®.

Shortly after the establishment of the new cooperative, the rice farmers began contributing to a fund to build their own rice mill in Leeton. A rice mill was purchased in 1951. Rice growers who sold their rice to the co-operative for milling received £38 ($AUD 95) per tonne for paddy rice compared to £12 ($AUD 30) per tonne offered by the private millers. By 1959 the Ricegrowers Cooperative Mills Limited had purchased all of the small rice milling operations in the rice growing area.

Today Ricegrowers Limited and the rice farmers continue to work together and control the rice industry of New South Wales from the paddock to the plate.

Currently, the rice industry exports 85% of New South Wales rice production to over 75 countries around the world. More than 3500 people have jobs associated with the rice industry (pdf - 64kb).

Further Internet resources:

History of the Ricegrowers' Co-operative Society
Time line of the establishment of rice growing and associated events
Griffith High School history of Griffith web site
Detailed road ma of the MIA
MIA EnviroWise
Royal Agricultural Society of NSW Agriculture in Australia
Online resources
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