Undersecretary McKinney Visits USA Rice Booth at Gulfood Show

DUBAI, UAE – Undersecretary of Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs Ted McKinney attended this year’s Gulfood Show here and spent time at the USA Rice booth together with the local U.S. Department of Agriculture Foreign Ag Service (FAS) Counselor Kurt Seifarth.  USA Rice’s Hartwig Schmidt briefed them about the organization‘s promotional activities in the Middle East and European region.

The Gulfood Show is the world's largest annual food and beverage show with 5,000 exhibitors from 185 countries from all over the world, and USA Rice has been here all week, showcasing different U.S. rice varieties, information materials and brochures, and collecting trade leads.

“This is certainly one of the most important trade shows we attend,” said Schmidt.  “It was great to have so many USA Rice members here for the past five days to meet with importers in the region.  Additionally, it was crucial for our new Undersecretary to see the vibrant trade relations and how well U.S. products are viewed in the region.”

USA Rice members manned the organization’s booth, providing opportunity to establish new trade contacts among the estimated 97,000 visitors this year, as well as meet up with existing trade partners.

The show ended yesterday.  Trade leads will be made available for interested members.