Think U.S. rice in Korea
Feb 02, 2022
SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA – In cooperation with Daesang Bestco, a large food wholesaler here, USA Rice conducted a series of online promotions of U.S. rice during December 2021.
“Daesang Bestco has been a USA Rice promotional partner many times over the last two years,” said Jim Guinn, USA Rice director of Asia promotion programs. “They purchase U.S. rice in weekly table rice auctions held by the Korea Agro-Fisheries Food Trade Corporation and their main customer base varies from small foodservice operators to individual consumers. Until recently, Daesang concentrated on in-store sales but the COVID pandemic has pushed their sales efforts online.”
Last December, Daesang redesigned their website’s primary online banner to highlight U.S. rice, one of their key sellers, and kept it posted on the front page of both their online store and the mobile application for the whole month. The banner featured the ThinkRice logo and listed the advantages of U.S. medium grain rice. Daesang also added U.S. rice to their premium item category, called “M.D.’s Pick.”
“Daesang recently reported that, as a result of the December online advertising campaign, U.S. medium grain rice sales increased on the online store from 50 tons to 70 tons, about 40 percent higher than sales in December 2020,” said Guinn. “Mobile application sales were 10 tons or half the sales increase which is considered a very good start for a mobile channel. USA Rice Korea believes promotion efforts with Daesang will continue to boost U.S. rice sales in the future.”
South Korea is the second largest market for U.S. rice in Asia, and the seventh largest export destination for U.S. rice, importing more than 156,000 MT in the first 11 months of 2021.