Wind and Low Prices Take Toll on Wild Rice Harvest

Wind and Low Prices Take Toll on Wild Rice Harvest

Wednesday, September 17, 2003 at 13:36

It looks like this year’s wild rice harvest in Northern Saskatchewan will be slightly above average.

Saskatchewan Agriculture spokesman Gerry Ivanochko estimates this year’s harvest at 3 million pounds.

He says it was a good year for production of wild rice, but says the harvest would have been larger if prices hadn’t been so low and producers hadn’t left so much rice unharvested.

Ivanochko says an oversupply of rice from last year’s record crop saw prices plunge to between 40 and 60 cents a pound this year, down from between 70 to 85 cents last year.

Wild rice growers are at the tail end of their harvest operations, which is a little early than usual.

Ivanochko says you can blame the two days of very strong winds earlier this month for the premature end to harvest.