THE rice industry has more than one reason to celebrate.
After posting what is believed to be a world-record yield, southern Australian growers are set to plant double the area they did last season.
The final figures showed growers produced an average of 11 tonnes a hectare, beating the previous record also set in Australia of 10.1 tonnes/ha.
Industry and Investment NSW rice farming systems leader John Lacy said the recent growing season "could not have been better".
He said conditions were good early in the growing season and temperatures during critical growing periods had also been ideal, allowing all grains on the head to fill.
"We believe that the 11 tonnes/ha across the whole district is not only an Australian record but a world record," Mr Lacy said.
Good subsoil moisture levels, increased dam levels, plus high levels of carryover water by irrigators meant the coming rice crop would produce much more than the 205,000 tonnes grown this year.
Last year, growers planted about 18,500ha of rice.
