The plenary session of the European Parliament has given the green light for automatic safeguards to be activated when rice imports from developing countries to the European Union exceed the average of the last decade by 45%. The vote had 459 votes in favor, 127 against, and 70 abstentions.
In this way, the entry of rice from third countries is limited, although in the 2024/2025 campaign 1.727 million tons were imported, a figure that is higher than the production of the 27 themselves, which in the past campaign was 1.613 million tons.
In this way, the European Parliament intends to protect European rice farmers and follows the path set in other areas of the world such as the United States, Morocco, and the Philippines.
What is the SPG?
With these acronyms, the “Generalized System of Preferences” is known, rules created in 1971 and revised every ten years, whose objective is to economically benefit and eradicate poverty in less favored countries, and for this reason, tariffs are reduced or even eliminated when they export to the European Union.
The chairman of the International Trade Committee and rapporteur of the Regulation, the socialist Bernd Lange declared: “This is great news for more than 2 billion people in more than 60 countries. By providing almost tariff- and quota-free access to the EU market for another ten years, the EU is redoubling its efforts to be a reliable, predictable and lasting partner for the developing world”.
European rice producers affirm that, decades after these measures were initiated, the scenario has changed and what is currently being achieved is that the Community rice sector is suffering very strong pressure from the import of very cheap grain from Cambodia, Myanmar, India and Thailand where production costs are lower than European ones, and the conditions and regulations for crop management are different.
The objective is not to restrict trade, but to ensure that the European rice sector can continue to play its fundamental role in rural areas, they point out from the European organization that represents community farmers.
For his part, the president of the rice sector in Cooperativas Agroalimentarias de España, Félix Liviano, adds "we are facing a change of scenario at a global level: even the most competitive countries are reacting to protect their producers. Europe cannot afford to wait".
Rice, a declining crop
Spain is the second European producer of rice with traditional areas such as the Delta del Ebro, the Albufera de Valencia, the Marismas del Guadalquivir or the rice of Calasparra. However, thesowing and production figures show that in the last two decades it is a crop that has a clear downward trend.
According to data provided by Cooperativas Agroalimentarias de España, in recent years there has been a shift from more than 120,000 hectares sown in 2011 which generated 910,000 tons of rice, to less than 100,000 hectares of surface in 2025 which produced 747,500 tons of said cereal.
In the graphs, provided by Cooperativas Agroalimentarias, the evolution of both planted areas and harvests can be seen, with a clear downward trend that was very pronounced in the year 2023, a year of significant drought in the countryside.
According to Cooperativas Agroalimentarias, European self-sufficiency in the rice sector has gone from 75% in 2011 to 40% currently, so currently, more than half of this cereal that is marketed in the community market comes from outside the EU.