MIAMI, FL – This week, USA Rice exhibited here at the 19th Americas Food and Beverage Show and Conference, the largest Americas focused food and beverage trade show in the Western Hemisphere. More than 500 exhibitors hailed from the U.S. and Latin America as well as Korea, Thailand, Turkey, and the show’s country of honor, Algeria.
The USA Rice booth, in the USA pavilion, provided brochures and samples of rice cooked by USA Rice’s Chef Javier of Guatemala and the four winners of the Colombian chef competitions conducted earlier this year. (
see the USA Rice Daily, June 29, 2015)
“This was our first time attending and exhibiting at this show and we gathered more than a dozen quality trade leads,” said Sarah Moran, USA Rice director of international promotion. “Large, well-known grocery chains, existing importers, as well as new importers to the region approached us expressing interest in U.S. rice. We’ll work with our members to follow up on all of them.”
The trade show also hosted seminars, including a discussion on “Top Food and Restaurant Trends across the U.S.” Presenters there stressed the need for brands to tell their “people story” to consumers. This is something USA Rice has already taken to heart, with the “Meet Our Farmers” section of the consumer website that is promoted via several social media channels.
“There was a high caliber of attendees in this year’s show and I think this was a great venue to showcase USA Rice,” said Ernesto Baron, USA Rice’s representative for Central America/Andean. “This region is growing very rapidly, and rice is popular and even intrinsic in a lot of cultures. People requested samples of U.S. rice as well as general trade information and I think they were pleased with our booth and the information we had for them. This was definitely worthwhile.”