HAMBURG, GERMANY – USA Rice launched a new promotional program here in the second half of 2021 that included staffing a booth at the Anuga trade show last October (see
USA Rice Daily, October 13, 2021) to collect trade leads and create interest and sales of U.S.-origin rice to local importers, wholesalers, and retailers.
Through intensive follow up, USA Rice recruited two local U.S. rice importers to conduct print and digital advertising in two publications: Doitsu News Digest, a bi-weekly publication targeting the Japanese community in Germany with a circulation of 16,000; and a wholesale product catalog with a print volume of 10,000 copies. Both advertising campaigns helped directly increase awareness of the high quality and availability of U.S.-origin rice in the Asian market segment.
"Another aspect of the effort to raise awareness and demand on the general consumer level, is a new collaboration between USA Rice and three local food bloggers/influencers who developed their own recipes featuring U.S. rice," said Eszter Somogyi, USA Rice director Europe, Middle East, and Africa. "On January 13, the three influencers orchestrated a joint activity where each blogger shared their own unique recipe and also linked through to the other two influencers featuring their U.S. rice recipes to attract a bigger audience."
The three influencers created new sushi style recipes using U.S. medium grain rice and, along with ingredients and preparation tips, included messaging about the history and sustainability of U.S.-grown rice that was shared on Facebook, Instagram, and e-newsletters. Over the past two weeks, a total of more than 22,600 German consumers viewed the recipes on the different platforms and this number continues to grow.
The U.S. exports about 30,000 tons of rice to the EU-27, valued at nearly $27 million. Germany is one of the top importers of U.S rice from amongst the EU-27 countries, and was chosen as one of the most promising countries to start a promotions program based on research conducted in 2020. Given the EU’s recent removal of the 25 percent retaliatory tariff (see
USA Rice Daily, January 6, 2022), importers here are even more interested in U.S. rice.