U.S. rice is a safe bet
Mar 02, 2021
DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES -- The annual Gulfood show, held here last week, is the world's largest food, beverage, and hospitality exhibition and, despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, one of the only exhibitions in the Europe/Middle East region staged as a live, in-person event this year.
“The USA Rice booth was set up in a prominent spot in the U.S. Pavilion, and utilized special features to interact with attendees and disseminate information in keeping with strict hygiene rules,” said Eszter Somogyi, USA Rice director for Europe, Middle East, and Africa. “We had scannable QR codes posted around the booth and visitors could use their mobile phones to access a Gulfood-dedicated section of the USA Rice Arabic language website with information on U.S. rice, supplier lists, and trade leads forms.”
In 2020, Gulfood set attendance records with 98,000 visitors and more than 5,000 companies from 185 countries exhibiting their products.
"We knew the number of visitors at Gulfood 2021 would be dramatically lower due to global and regional travel bans,” said Somogyi. “However, it’s important to maintain the USA Rice presence here to show our commitment to our loyal customers and to engage with new contacts and grow U.S. rice market share in the region. Collected trade leads have been shared with USA Rice members.”
The U.S. exported nearly 290,000 MT of rice to the Middle East last year, valued at $254 million and comprising 9 percent of U.S. rice exports based on quantity and 14 percent of exports based on value. The top U.S. rice export markets in the Middle East are Saudi Arabia, which imports long grain parboiled; Jordan, which brings in medium grain; and Israel, a new top market bringing in 36,000 MT of U.S. medium grain. USA Rice also has a promotions program in the West Bank to help spur additional sales of U.S. rice there.