As rice supplies tighten, Darlington grower feels the squeeze

By ALLISON ASKINS - aaskins@thestate.com

PRICE COMPARISON

• Two-pound bag of Carolina Plantation Rice at Rosewood Market & Deli, $8.99, 28 cents per ounce

• Two pounds of Rice Select, a higher-end rice sold at Publix, $6.99, 19.4 cents per ounce

• Two pounds of Publix long- grain rice, $1.59, 4.97 cents per ounce

The state’s only commercial rice grower is fielding calls daily from international buyers in search of rice.

“Any crack and cranny in which they can find a grain of rice, they’re looking for it,” said Campbell Coxe, owner of Plumfield Plantation in Darlington.

But the gourmet rice grower — who’s dealing with his own financial constraints because of rising fuel and production costs — is turning buyers away because he simply doesn’t grow enough rice to meet the buyers’ needs.

“They’re looking for shiploads,” said Coxe, who grows 200 acres of a specialty aromatic rice known as Della. Coxe also grows about 50 acres of Carolina Gold, another specialty rice that dates back to this state’s early history as the nation’s leader in the once-booming colonial rice trade.

Grown alongside the Great Pee Dee River in Darlington, Coxe’s rice fields are a labor of love he began about a dozen years ago on the Darlington County land he grew up on.

Every year Coxe sells out of the rice he grows for about 75 high-end restaurants and 300 wholesalers as well as individual buyers.

The costs of keeping up with that demand have nearly tripled in the past year, Coxe said.

The rising price of fertilizer, diesel fuel, seed, freight — “everything that has anything to do with the production aspect of farming” — is affecting the farm, Coxe said.

Nitrogen fertilizer, for example, ran about $200 a ton last year. This year, he said, he’s paying $450 a ton, and the farm uses 100 to 150 tons per season.

Coxe said he’ll be making a decision in the next few months about the price of his next crop, which is just being planted. Coxe raised the price slightly last year and expects he might have to do so again this year.

A 2-pound bag sells for $8.47 if you buy directly from the farm’s Web site, carolinaplantationrice.com, excluding shipping. At shops like Rosewood Market & Deli, you’ll find a 2-pound bag for $8.99.

“Our bottom line is being affected directly, like all the other growers in the world,” Coxe said.

As he has walked his fields in recent days, Coxe said he’s thought a lot about those whose daily sustenance is rice.

“The saddest part about this whole scenario is I’d love to be able to give the rice to the people who really need it. I really and truly don’t know how we’re going to keep these people from starving.”

Coxe said his farm gives rice annually to Harvest Hope Food Bank and to a program that feeds Darlington’s needy through his church.

“We’ll continue to do that whether we have orders or not. We have a certain amount we set aside.”

Reach Askins at (803) 771-8614.