GFMM desk: In the midst of the escalating trade war between the United States and China, a 100-year-old California rice company is bridging the divide.
In July 2019, Sun Valley Rice won a contract with a Chinese importer, making it the first US rice producer to sell rice to China.
"China has been tough to get into because for many years it was illegal to sell our rice there," said Betsy Ward, president of USA Rice, a national trade association. But, in 2018, the US and China came to an agreement, making it legal to export American rice to China. As a result, more than two dozen US companies were approved to export rice to China. But Sun Valley was the first to land a deal.
Sun Valley, a family-owned company based in Sacramento, California, had been trying to break into the Chinese market for close to 15 years.
"We would travel regularly to China to research [the market], attend trade shows and meet the industry players," said Ken LaGrande, who founded Sun Valley Rice with his father Michael in 2000. "It was a commitment we made as a family to persist. So when the opportunity opened up, we were ready."
"California's rice growing regions are the same latitude as Korea and Japan. So we all grow the same kind of rice -- medium grain and short grain -- that's popular in Chinese, Japanese and Korean cuisine," said LaGrande.
"But Chinese consumers, who eat rice every day, will now have more choice with our rice," he said. "It is of the highest quality, grown and packaged under strict labor protocols and environmental and safety standards."
Sun Valley annually sells 250 million pounds of rice under half a dozen varieties. Beginning in the fall, the company will export roughly 88,000 pounds of its Calrose rice to Shenzhen Yintuo, a subsidiary of the Dragon Ocean Hing Group, in China.
Source: WFMZ
SZK
Comment Now