Apr 18, 2022
TAIPEI, TAIWAN – A USA Rice-funded research report demonstrating the high-quality cooking characteristics of U.S.-grown rice, shared with local importers, has resulted in an uptick in sales of U.S.-grown rice here. The report covered six varieties of U.S. short, medium, and long grain rice, including Calhikari, Calmochi, and Calrose from California, and southern medium and long grain, and jasmine rice.
As a condition of joining the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2002, Taiwan agreed to import a total of 144,720 MT of rice (brown rice basis) each year, with a country-specific quota (CSQ) of 45 percent (64,634 MT) for the U.S. This CSQ is then divided into Simultaneous-Buy-Sell (SBS) quota (how private importers in Taiwan can purchase U.S. rice), and normal tenders, (purchased by the Taiwanese government).
“One importer purchased several pallets of long grain jasmine using SBS quota for customer trials, and when that feedback was positive, a second SBS quota holder began to import and sell long grain varieties, including both jasmine and regular long grain rice,” said Jim Guinn, USA Rice director of Asia promotion programs. “As a result, the total import of long grain jasmine under the SBS quota reached 1,200 tons in 2021, with one importer selling on the wholesale market, and the other selling mainly to specialty grocery stores targeting Southeast Asian consumers.”
In addition to quality, the incentive for importers bringing in U.S.-grown jasmine rice was because of the significant bid price gap between U.S. rice under CSQ and Asian rice imported through private tenders. For example, on March 1, 2022, bids for import quotas for U.S. rice under CSQ ranged from $28-32 per metric ton, while bids under private tenders for Thai jasmine ranged from $485-521 ton.
“As the Taiwan market for U.S. rice diversifies, it gives the U.S. the best chance to compete for available quota with a higher value,” said Guinn.
U.S. rice exports to Taiwan totaled 58,240 MT, valued at $37.3 million in 2021, compared to 62,000 MT valued at $35 million in 2020.