Quarter century club
Aug 08, 2024
HARRISBURG, AR – More than 200 rice farmers, researchers, and industry partners gathered here yesterday, surrounded by golden yellow and green fields filled with FullPage® rice to commemorate RiceTec’s 25th anniversary and the enormous impact the company has had on the industry.
Dr. Brian Ottis, RiceTec’s director of U.S. marketing and product management, kicked off the event, welcoming attendees to the facility that had been turned into a small fair, with multiple food trucks, a beer wagon, and a stage with a local band that kept people’s feet tapping in celebration of the company’s contributions to agricultural innovation. Ottis expressed his gratitude to the farmers, research partners, industry representatives, and government officials in the crowd.
In a particularly meaningful moment, Van McNeely, the company’s president, head of U.S. business, thanked the farmers that were in attendance, as well as the handful who had been with RiceTec since the beginning. “Seventy-six farmers who took a chance to grow hybrids on 12,000 acres 25 years ago, and without whom we would not be here today,” he said.
McNeely shared impressive statistics on the contribution hybrid rice – now accounting for at least half of rice acres in the mid-south – has made over the years. He said hybrids have resulted in an average yield improvement of 24 percent, and put an additional $4 billion in farmers’ bank accounts and $2.5 billion for mills for the sale of milled hybrid rice.
“This has also put more than $19 million into check-off programs that goes towards additional research and promotion of U.S. rice,” McNeely announced.
He closed by talking about the environmental impact of hybrids that he said had reduced carbon that would be valued at $1 billion in carbon credit markets.
CEO Karsten Neuffer, freshly returned from a trip to China that he said, with the U.S, leads the world in hybrid rice research and production, reflected on the momentous occasion, also thanking the hundreds of rice farmers who made the day possible.
Ottis, who will appear on an upcoming episode of The Rice Stuff podcast to talk about the 25th anniversary, said he’s proud of the many accomplishments RiceTec has achieved and the contributions the company has made to the rice industry.