WASHINGTON, DC – This week, more than two dozen industry leaders representing the rice farmer, merchant, and milling sectors traveled here to meet with legislators and Administration officials to hear policy updates and market analysis, and advocate for leveling the global playing field on trade.
Sessions opened on Tuesday with an in-depth presentation by USDA Chief Economist Dr. Justin Benavidez, focusing on how commodity prices and the cost of production, long largely in sync, have been diverging at an alarming rate.
“The cost of seed, chemicals, and fertilizer are all up, but fertilizer could be as high as 35 percent of the cost of production this year,” Benavidez said, citing a string of “black swan” events – the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and most recently, the U.S. war with Iran that has disrupted a vital shipping route.
Following were presentations on export credit mechanisms with Leonardo Clavijo, managing director of the Export-Import Bank; Ajay Rao, health and agriculture investment officer with the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation; and Dee Hale, international trade specialist with USDA-FAS and a Louisiana native. All three explained that their agencies exist to help U.S. exporters in a variety of situations and parts of the world and they took questions from the assembled on Haiti, Iraq, Syria, Venezuela, west Africa, and other potential markets.
The afternoon got under way with a blunt discussion of trade policy, tariffs, the World Trade Organization, and pending trade agreements with House Ways & Means Committee Trade Counsel Nick Paster.
Following that discussion, USDA Deputy Under Secretary for Trade & Foreign Affairs Michelle Bekkering spoke about agency programs designed to promote U.S. agriculture and agri-communities through trade missions and a renewed emphasis on food aid programs.
“Our goal is to see these programs rely 100 percent on U.S. commodities,” she said. “We are the U.S. Department of Agriculture.”
USA Rice President & CEO Peter Bachmann pressed Bekkering, suggesting the time was right for the U.S. government to purchase U.S. rice and resell it at a discount or donate it to countries battling food insecurity.
There followed a working session, featuring a question-and-answer session to compare notes on tariffs and government programs with Zack Clark, vice president of government affairs for the American Sugarbeet Growers Association.
The day concluded with a frank assessment of phytosanitary policies with George Galasso, national trade director for grains programs, and John Crowe, international trade director, both with the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS).
Galasso provided analysis of phyto situations with China, Turkey, Ecuador, Colombia, and Mexico, also touching on wild rice issues. In addition, Crowe fielded questions on the procedure for reporting safety concerns of imported rice.
Attendees regrouped and recharged and will spend the next day fanning out in teams for meetings with Members of Congress, their staffs, and additional representatives of the Trump Administration.
“Today’s discussions reinforce for me that the U.S. rice industry continues to play by international rules and is being victimized as a result by countries that flaunt those same rules and enforcement mechanisms that are not up to the task,” said Bobby Hanks, chair of the USA Rice International Trade Policy Committee. “We understand lawmakers and policymakers have a lot on their plates right now, but as we’ve been saying for years, this is a five alarm fire for the rice industry.”