From left: USA Rice's Eszter Somogyi and Jesica Kincaid, and Laurent Journo with USDA FAS Paris
Oct 28, 2022
PARIS, FRANCE – Last week, the SIAL Paris Trade Show was held here for the first time since 2019. The biannual event is the second largest in Europe and alternates each year with the Anuga Trade Show held in Cologne, Germany. The 2022 SIAL had more than 7,000 exhibitors and expected 300,000 visitors this year, a return to pre-COVID numbers.
Eszter Somogyi, USA Rice director for Europe, Middle East, and Africa, was in attendance and met with traders from the European Union (EU) and the Middle East-Africa (MEA) region, as well as other stakeholders.
Somogyi and Jesica Kincaid, USA Rice senior manager for international trade policy, also attended the Cooperators’ Day event hosted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) Paris and the FAS Mission to the EU. This gathering offered informational sessions about funding resources, the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS), and strategies for reaching African markets.
The morning session included a panel discussion about sustainable food systems in the EU with speakers from the U.S. Sustainability Alliance, of which USA Rice is a founding member.
The afternoon session was designed to facilitate interaction with FAS personnel from across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. USA Rice met with FAS post representatives from Israel, Turkey, Morocco, Senegal, Poland, Brussels, and France, among others, to discuss opportunities and challenges in their respective regions.
“USA Rice took advantage of both the SIAL Trade Show and the Cooperators’ Day to touch base with established contacts and share strategies for growing current markets, as well as potential new trading partners for ideas about how to effectively reach out to untapped markets,” said Somogyi.