LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM – The IFE International Food and Drink Event took place here this week with USA Rice exhibiting in the U.S. Pavilion for the third time. The IFE is the most important tradeshow for the 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
“There are several ethnic groups here who appreciate U.S. rice for its high quality and consistency,” said Mark Holt, Chair of the USA Rice Europe, Middle East and Africa Promotion and Trade Policy Subcommittees, who helped service the USA Rice booth. “The UK is a very diverse rice market so in response, we showcased different types of U.S. rice, including long grain, medium grain, as well as wild rice. We had a strong interest from our customers here and hope to continue to gain market share in this important market.”
Total rice imports to the UK average between 650,000 - 750,000 MT annually, and while the majority 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 18,900 MT in 2023 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 and also helped staff the USA Rice booth.
“During the show 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 of our product, as well as all the great work our industry does on sustainability,” said Eszter Somogyi, Director of Europe, Middle East, and Africa for USA Rice.
Somogyi said trade leads for all types of U.S. rice had been collected during the show and have already been shared with membership for follow-up.