ARLINGTON, VA - USA Rice's Rice Marketability and Competitiveness Task Force met recently to discuss the current situation relative to long grain rice quality improvement and the future role of the task force in maintaining focus on the subject.
Several initiatives resulted from the discussion which included the directive to communicate the New Rice Line Evaluation Protocol again to rice breeders reminding them of the existence of the protocol and urging them to submit samples of new rice lines for evaluation. The directive also included communicating to the 12 rice mills who volunteered to evaluate samples to continue evaluating samples under the amended evaluation process. The evaluation process was amended to have evaluations performed on a blind sample basis with results related to specific varieties provided only to those breeders who submitted the samples, and with the task force reviewing the results on a blind sample basis.
USA Rice will soon ask both private and public rice breeders to submit samples this year by October 15 with final evaluation results available by early December.
The task force will continue to serve as a discussion forum on issues related to competiveness and marketability of U.S. rice which the task force believes is fundamental to the future of the long grain rice industry in the United States.