Global Progress
Rice
Photo: Xaume Olleros / RTI
From 2022 to 2023, there was an increase in the volume of rice available for human consumption (+5.3%) and the amount of industrially milled rice (+4.9%), and a large increase in the amount of fortified rice (+113.1%). These trends are very promising since rice is widely consumed but has historically been fortified at low rates.
One large difference from 2022 to 2023 is that the percentage of industrially milled rice that is fortified in countries with fortification opportunities has increased from 3.98% to 9.74%. This is due to previously mentioned increases (notably, the amount of fortified rice has more than doubled). The most significant contributor to the increase of fortified rice is India, with an increase of 13 million tons of fortified rice. Cambodia, Myanmar, and Thailand had the largest increases in the amount of industrially milled rice.
These positive trends are encouraging and show the dedication and effort of global fortification partners in increasing rice fortification. However, given that less than 10% of the industrially milled rice in countries FFI considers good opportunities for fortification are being fortified, the potential to increase the fortification of rice is significant. This intervention has the potential to reach billions of people globally.
(a) FAO data with additional, openly available data sources.
2022 estimates: 2020 FAOSTAT, Supply Utilization Accounts, Food (element 5141) 2020 Data: https://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/SCL
2023 estimates: 2021 FAOSTAT, Supply Utilization Accounts, Food (element 5141) 2021 Data: https://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/SCL
(b) FFI calculations.
