Wild rice from Northern Saskatchewan is shipping all over the world. (Derek Cornet/larongeNOW Staff)

By Derek Cornet

organic crop

Wild rice production plummets compared to 2023

Oct 23, 2024 | 5:00 PM

Wild rice production in Northern Saskatchewan will take a massive hit when compared to the amount harvested in 2023.

That’s according to La Ronge Wild Rice Corporation manager Jeanne Gress, who stated the plant will process about 750,000 pounds in 2024. That’s compared to approximately three million pounds last year.

“This year, it was a lot less, like about a quarter of what was last year,” she explained.

“That is something in the cycle of wild rice, it has happened in the past and it will happen again. Wild rice, being an organic crop, that is just Mother Nature’s way of some years there is a great harvest and some years there is not.”

Gress noted there are two reasons why wild rice production plummeted, which includes unfavourable growing conditions and the spread of the rice worm. She added some growers in the east side of the province had their crops totally wiped out by either one of those scenarios.

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“Some of it was due to water levels. The sun wouldn’t shine, so the water level goes up and down and [the rice] doesn’t get to mature properly,” Gress said.

“In some areas, one side of the lake was completely clear of worms and the other side might have it. It is all just nature’s way of keeping us on our toes of how much crop will come in.”

Wild rice is an important economic driver in Northern Saskatchewan with the harvest lasting up to two months. The processing plant in La Ronge is a collection point for the rice as the facility assists in maturing the rice, removing the hulls, and sorting the rice through a gravity system. The rice is then bagged into a finished product, where it is then shipped to countries all over the world.

Overall, it was a late season for wild rice harvesting, Gress mentioned. Processing didn’t begin until October when it normally starts in September. Processing will now continue until mid-November.

Gress was unsure how the drop in rice production in 2024 will affect prices.

“The people that export rice are sort of the ones who are more familiar with the pricing,” she said.

“The price will definitely not go up this year because of such of a low crop, and it was wonderful they had such good sales last year. I think it all balances out year by year.”

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derek.cornet@pattisonmedia.com