USA Rice Holds Consultations with USDA Foreign Posts

TYSON’S CORNER, VA — This week, USA Rice staff participated in the annual U.S. Agricultural Export Development Council (USAEDC) conference here, meeting with hundreds of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) program cooperators and FAS staff.  This is the first time the meeting is being held in-person since 2019.

As part of the annual conference, USAEDC facilitates a series of speed dating-style consultation meetings between cooperators and FAS foreign service officers from overseas posts that have flown into Washington, DC, for the event.  USA Rice staff also scheduled one-on-one meetings with five key FAS posts from the Western Hemisphere, Africa, and Asia to discuss trade policy and promotion issues, and plans for upcoming trade missions and travel.

“USA Rice works closely with other cooperators as a board member of USAEDC and we utilize this meeting to visit on the sidelines with a number of our key partners along with FAS staff that we don’t often interact with in-person,” said USA Rice Vice President of International Sarah Moran.  

Additionally, outside of the formal consultations with FAS posts, USA Rice staff talked with more than a dozen other foreign service officers during the various networking events to brief them on U.S. rice industry issues.

“In a time when travel is just picking back up, touching base with this many of our posts all in one place is more efficient and effective than ever,” said Moran.

Outside of the attaché consultations, conference participants had a full agenda of other trade policy and promotion speakers from USDA and the private sector.