Rice market deregulation: NSW Government ends SunRice export monopoly

SunRice wanted to retain its state-based export monopoly, but says the NSW Government wanted to get rid of it.

SunRice Group chairman Laurie Arthur said it was better to end its state-based export monopoly early, than go through a five-year phase out.

SunRice will lose its monopoly as the sole exporter of rice from NSW from July 1 next year.

NSW Agriculture Minister Tara Moriarty made the announcement this week, after initially proposing a slow wind-down of SunRice’s monopoly over the next five years.

SunRice chairman Laurie Arthur said in the end the five-year phase out of its vesting arrangements caused more problems than it was worth and agreement was reached to simply ending the company’s sole export licence on July 1, 2025.

“We wanted the vesting arrangements to continue as they were,” Mr Arthur said, but both the current NSW Labor and previous Coalition state governments “wanted to get rid of it”.

He said SunRice was open to competition from any others in world markets, where the company already had access to 50 countries.

“The best of luck to everyone,” Mr Arthur said.

“Without some of the regulatory constraints of vesting, we believe that SunRice will be able to work more directly with growers to give the industry the best chance of long-term sustainability as we navigate through new challenges, including water reform, that have accelerated the need for the industry to transition.

“In particular, SunRice is now able to assess new contracting and pricing options for growers, which should enable the business to be able to better match supply with demand from our premium markets.

“These new structures should enable both large and smaller rice growers to participate in the industry in a way that better suits each grower’s circumstances while ensuring more consistent supply, which is in the best interests of our growers, shareholders and the SunRice Group.”

But he warned the industry was about to undergo substantial change as the federal government charged ahead with recovering another 450 gigalitres of water for the environment out of irrigation communities, “a lot of which will come out of rice”.

The rice sourced by the SunRice Group from NSW, which is affected by this week’s decision, makes up about 30 per cent of its total rice sales.

SEE SUNRICE’S FULL MARKET ANNOUNCEMENT HERE