Nathan Childs, agricultural economist with USDA’s Economic Research Service, will give an update on the outlook for the U.S. and world rice markets during a University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture Webinar at 2 p.m. Thursday (May 25).

Dr. Childs, one of the most sought-after speakers on the world supply and demand outlook for rice, will discuss USDA’s projections for the 2017-18 U.S. and global rice markets, during the webinar, which will be hosted by Bobby Coats.

Dr. Coats, professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness, Division of Agriculture, University of Arkansas System, writes a weekly financial and commodity market analysis article for deltafarmpress.com.

The main themes for Dr. Childs’ presentation:

A 10-percent decline in U.S. rice production is expected to reduce U.S. rice supplies 7 percent in 2017-18. Tighter supplies and higher projected prices are behind expectations of smaller domestic use and U.S. exports in 2017-18. In the global market, production is expected to again exceed use, with global ending stocks in 2017-18 projected to increase to the highest level since 2001-02.

Following Dr. Childs presentation, Jarrod Hardke, associate professor and Arkansas Rice Extension agronomist, Crop, Soil & Environmental Science Department at the University of Arkansas, will give an update on the 2017 rice crop.

To register for the webinar, click on https://uaex.zoom.us/webinar/register/2ac409cb921099637510d14dfea9e911.

For more information, contact Dr. Coats at [email protected].

The webinar will be produced by Mary Poling, coordinator for interactive communications, University of Arkansas System Division of Ag, Cooperative Extension Service, E-mail: [email protected]