Italian rice, the European market and the tariff issue

The sector of Italian rice and European rice is preparing for a structural turning point. While on one hand Italy consolidates the leadership productive in the European Union, covering about half of the continental demand, on the other hand the supply chain must deal with unprecedented import flows.

To redefine the market balances intervenes the reform of the system of tariff preferences of the European Union. The new regulatory framework introduces targeted protections for domestic productions, aimed at reshaping trade dynamics with third countries.

The numbers of production and consumption in Italy

TheItaly produces about 50% of the EU rice harvest. In 2024 the harvest was around 1.4 million tons of paddy rice; for 2025, the National Rice Authority estimates a production By 1,439,047 tons, with an area of 234,732 hectares, an increase of 8,603 hectares (+3.8%) compared to 2024 (National Rice Authority, 2026). About 84% of the rice cultivated in Italy is of the Japonica, while the remaining 16% is Indica.

On the commercial front, in 2024 the Italian exports of rice approached 720,000 tons (+9% over the previous year), for a total value of 872 million euros (Confagricoltura, 2025). The main destination markets remain Germany (22.5% of the value) and France (21.6%), which together absorb 43% of Italian exports; followed at a distance by the United Kingdom (7%) and Belgium (5%) (Confagricoltura, 2025).

In the 2024/2025 campaign (September 1, 2024 – June 24, 2025) the imports Italian ones have in turn grown by +15%, reaching 149,391 tons, compared to 130,243 in the previous year. About half of the volume paid full duty, while the other half entered duty exemption, particularly as Basmati rice (43,208 t, mostly from Pakistan) or under the preferential regime reserved for Least Developed Countries (26,213 t, of which 15,092 t from Cambodia) (National Rice Agency, 2025).

On the level of consumption, in 2024 Italian families spent 447.6 million euros on rice, for 164.3 thousand tons purchased at an average price of €2.72/kg: consumption remains concentrated in white processed rice (73% of volumes), with parboiled at 25%; among the most purchased varieties stand out Carnaroli (17.1%) and Arborio (11.6%) (Ismea, 2025).

The market and stock scenario in the European Union

At the level of European Union, paddy production in 2025 was about 2.6 million tons (+14% on 2024), also driven by Spain's recovery (+83.5%) after the drought of the previous year, while Italy remains the leading producer with 50% of the total (Il Sole 24 Ore, 2025).

On the trade front, the EU is a structural net importer: in the 2024/2025 campaign the imports community ones reached the record of 1.73 million tons in milled rice equivalent, contributing to an overstocking situation on the market, also due to early purchases by European operators in a context of uncertainty over global supplies (Informatore Agrario, 2026).

A significant share of these volumes benefits from preferential tariff regimes, allowing entry at reduced or zero duty from third countries, fueling concerns of the European rice sector on the competitiveness of internal productions (Confagricoltura, 2026).

The system of tariff preferences

The system of tariff preferences applied to rice imports into the European Union is currently governed by Regulation (EU) No 978/2012 establishing the GSP regime (Generalised Tariff Preferencesand includes the special scheme Everything But Arms reserved for the Least Developed Countries. As clarified by the European Commission in response to a parliamentary question:

• il riso è classificato come prodotto sensibile e non beneficia di preferenze tariffarie nell’ambito del regime GSP standard e GSP+;
• only the Least Developed Countries, including Cambodia and Myanmar, may export rice to the EU at a reduced tariff rate (European Parliament, 2026a).

The extensive use of this facilitated channel has led the European Parliament and the Council to introduce, as part of the system review, a new automatic safeguard mechanism exclusively reserved for the rice sector, which adds to the general and special safeguards already in place (European Parliament, 2026a).

What changes with the automatic safeguard clause for rice

The political agreement between Parliament and Council was reached on December 1, 2025 (European Parliament, 2026b) and provides that the rice safeguard clause is triggered when imports cumulative from a country beneficiary exceed by 45% the ten-year average. By way of example:

• the 45% threshold for Cambodia, in 2027, is calculated at 313,268 tons based on a historical average 2015-2024 of 216,047 tons (Council of the European Union, 2026a);
• in an extreme scenario of 'saturation' — that is, if imports from Cambodia equaled exactly the threshold level of the previous year every year — the safeguard threshold, driven solely by the effect of the ten-year moving average, could almost double in ten years: from 313,268 t in 2027 to about 590,000-600,000 t by 2037.

The text was approved in plenary session by the European Parliament on April 28, 2026, with 459 votes in favor, 127 against and 70 abstentions (European Parliament, 2026c).

The new regulation, which repeals Regulation (EU) No 978/2012, was definitively agreed on June 17, 2026 and applies from January 1, 2027 for a period of ten years. At the date of writing this article, the act has not yet been published in the Official Journal of the European Union with a definitive number.

Conclusions

The introduction of the automatic safeguard mechanism is presented as a trade defense tool suitable for ensuring the stability of the continental rice supply chain. This system will effectively double in ten years the imports of zero-duty rice from some non-EU countries, under conditions of potential socio-environmental dumping, to surpass the volumes of rice exports Made in Italy.

In this scenario, the future of Italian rice depends on the ability to preserve and enhance the biodiversity heritage of the historic varieties of the Po Valley, established in the last century to produce risottos memorable. As well as on varietal traceability, strict compliance with EU rules on contaminants and the added value of organic farming.

Dario Dongo

Credit cover  Sophy Chen

References

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