Jan 09, 2015
ISTANBUL, TURKEY -- Last month, the USA Rice Federation invited 25 key food bloggers and health specialists to a New Year cooking event here featuring celebrity chef, Fikret Ozdemir. During the half day event, attendees worked alongside Chef Ozdemir, cooking healthy and delicious dishes featuring U.S. rice and wild rice.
The bloggers took photos and video of their hands-on cooking experience that were used to generate tweets and Facebook posts, ramping up interest in U.S. rice and providing an opportunity to have a direct conversation with Turkish consumers.
"By exposing the food bloggers to the versatility, unique flavor, and heatlth benefits of U.S. rice, they then encourage their followers to use more U.S. rice and wild rice in their recipes," said Jim Guinn, USA Rice vice president of international promotion. "These social media platforms have great influence on consumers."
The U.S. is the number one rice exporter to Turkey with 40 percent market share. However, wild rice is a new product for Turkish consumers and promotional activities, such as the food blogger event, are specifically designed to introduce wild and white rice dishes to the media and consumers.
Contact: Eszter Somogyi, 011-49-40-4503-8667