The socially distanced personal touch
Feb 18, 2021
TAIPEI, TAIWAN – Over the past couple of months, two major retail chains in Taiwan ran ten-week promotions that boosted sales of U.S.-grown rice by as much as 700 percent.
“The retailers compared ten-week timeframes, before our promotion and after our promotion,” said Jim Guinn, USA Rice director of Asia promotion programs. “They were impressed by the effectiveness of this activity in raising awareness and generating sales of U.S. rice.”
PX Mart, Taiwan’s largest supermarket chain with more than 1,000 small neighborhood stores, ran their promotion from September through early November 2020. The promotion at Taiwan Fresh Supermarket ran in several of their stores in Central Taiwan from November 2020 through early January 2021.
“At each in-store booth, a display screen shared industry and recipe videos reinforcing the quality of U.S. rice,” said Guinn. “A booth attendant also interacted with shoppers, providing promotional materials and samples of cooked rice, and talking about the many benefits of U.S. rice including its versatility and nutritional value.”
USA Rice will continue retail promotions this year, particularly during the July 4th and Christmas holiday periods, working with several brands that sell identified U.S. rice. Additional promotions also include menu ideation with food processing companies, educational brochures for the foodservice industry, exhibiting at the Taipei International Food Show, and a robust social media campaign.
Taiwan is a steady U.S. rice market, importing around 64,000 MT each year. In 2020, the U.S. exported 62,000 MT of rice to Taiwan, valued at $35 million; more than 95 percent of those exports came from southern producers.