Matthew Palmer, deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in London and Cynthia Guven, ag counselor with FAS London (center) visit the USA Rice booth
Mar 24, 2023
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM – The IFE International Food and Drink Event took place here this week, and USA Rice exhibited in the U.S. Pavilion for the second time this year. The IFE is the single most important tradeshow for UK food, drink, and hospitality professionals, and has a legacy of more than 40 years connecting buyers and suppliers across the retail, wholesale, distribution, import/export, and foodservice sectors in the United Kingdom.
“With multiple ethnic groups here, the UK is a very diverse rice market so in response we showcased many different types of U.S. rice,” said Eszter Somogyi, USA Rice Director for Europe, Middle East and Africa, who staffed the exhibit. “We conducted meetings with our existing trade contacts here and got to educate interested visitors on the availability of all types of U.S.-grown rice, highlighting the high quality, safety, and sustainable production techniques our industry follows.”
Somogyi said total rice imports to the UK average between 650,000 - 750,000 MT annually, and while about half of the rice market is dominated by India and Pakistan mainly through basmati rice sales, there is an opportunity for growth for a number of U.S. rice types here.
U.S. rice sales totaled 24,000 MT in 2022 with a value of $15.6 million representing brown, milled, and parboiled long grain used in the Chinese, Afro-Caribbean, Bangladeshi, and mainstream retail market, as well as medium and short grain sold mostly to the Japanese and Korean market segment.
“IFE is a great opportunity to interact with buyers and chefs from major UK businesses to learn about new trends straight from the source,” said Claire Harcup, who heads up sales and marketing in Europe and Africa for Sun Valley UK. “We saw tremendous interest in high quality U.S. rice varieties as buyers here appreciate the versatility and year-round consistency. We look forward to continuing to service this market.”
USA Rice collected trade leads for all types of U.S. rice and shared these with membership for future follow up.