Mar 10, 2017
TOKYO, JAPAN – USA Rice hit the ground running on Tuesday, the first day of FOODEX 2017, the largest annual food and beverage tradeshow in Asia, with a taste-testing activity featuring U.S. medium grain rice. The cold menu dish, "U.S. Medium Grain Rice Salad Sushi Style," was well received by the more than 500 trade visitors who stopped by the U. S. Embassy Agriculture Trade Office (ATO) booth for a sampling, and will be one of the recipes included in a promotion highlighting new usages of U.S. medium grain rice for this market.
“A positive take-away from the sampling activity was more visitors were aware of U.S. medium grain than in the past,” said Jim Guinn, director of USA Rice Asia Promotion Programs. “There were also more foodservice operators in attendance who are already using U.S. medium grain rice.”
USA Rice also conducted a survey of more than 40 traders about how they use U.S. medium grain rice in their menus, introduced the new U.S. medium grain deli menu book, and reminded everyone of the annual menu contest targeting chefs and deli operators tentatively scheduled for August 2017.
“U.S. medium grain rice has made great strides in the last year with two new wholesalers who target small foodservice operations now carrying Calrose and two new retail chains also carrying the product,” said USA Rice Vice President International Hugh Maginnis “Japan was our third largest export market in 2016, importing 346,800 MT of U.S. rice.”