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Touring a mill in Greenville.
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GREENVILLE, MS, ENGLAND and Little Rock, AR -- In the USA Rice Federation's continuing efforts to improve access to the Iraq market for U.S. rice, three high ranking and influential representatives of the Iraq government toured delta rice locations this week with USA Rice staff and members. The delegation from the Grain Board of Iraq is part of the Ministry of Trade, and responsible for importing more than 1.4 million metric tons of rice each year.
"Iraq has traditionally been a good market for U.S. rice, but it was disrupted during the wars, and then started to come back slowly in 2005," explained Jim Guinn, vice president of international promotion for USA Rice. "In 2006, Iraq was our number two export market at more than 380,000 MT, but then we dropped to zero in 2012 because of a variety of technical issues. We've addressed several already, such as a declaration of GMO-free by private laboratories, but there remain some obstacles. This trip was designed to find solutions."
Among the remaining issues the Grain Board of Iraq reports is the preference to purchase 50 kg bags rather than bulk rice, chalkiness, and definition of kernel length.
"We wanted to tackle these issues head-on, so we knew we needed to bring the right officials here to see how we do things," said Hartwig Schmidt, USA Rice's regional director of international market development, who accompanied the delegation.
 | Inspecting bulk rice being loaded
and heading for Haiti. |
The weeklong tour included stops at mills and laboratories in Greenville, Mississippi; Stuttgart, Arkansas; and an ADM export facility in Destrehan, Louisiana, as well as a large family farm in England, Arkansas. A reception for the industry and lawmakers was also held in Little Rock, with Governor Mike Beebe in attendance, and another industry reception is planned in New Orleans tonight.
"It's important that people who can make decisions about importing Arkansas rice get the opportunity to see how it's grown, processed, and stored here," said Governor Beebe. "It gives them a comfort level and assurances that we can meet their expectations, but it's also a good cultural exchange. You get to know each other, trust each other, then maybe you can do business over the phone. It's an educational, but also a friendship building opportunity."
The delegation seemed impressed with what they saw.
"We saw very good technical production facilities, a very clean bulk loading facility, and a mill laboratory with very good procedures," said Hasan Ibrahim, the Director General of the Grain Board of Iraq and head of the delegation. "I think we will find solutions to our technical issues during this visit."
Weather dampened the tour at Dow Brantley's farm, but the frank discussion between farmer and importer was worthwhile.
 | Dow Brantley fields questions
from the Iraq Grain Board. |
"They are using good machinery on the farm and this visit gives me the confidence that American rice is able to meet our specifications," Ibrahim said. "I think this visit is very important for the Grain Board of Iraq to open the market widely to American rice."
Also accompanying Director General Ibrahim was Laboratory Manager Ali Mensheid and Import Manager Nuha Al-Musawi. They were very interested in parboiling, which they think holds great promise for the market.
"The American parboiled rice was amazing," Ibrahim said after tours at Riceland and Producers Rice Mill in Stuttgart. "I think there is a chance to open the market to American parboiled rice because we need rice with low chalkiness and the parboiled is one of the solutions."
If the technical issues can be resolved, the Iraqi people should be happy to begin eating American rice again.
"Rice is a principle food for the Iraqi people and they always ask for American origin," said Ms. Al-Musawi. "We hope we can resolve the technical issues and import American rice at the levels we had in the past."
Contact: Michael Klein, (703) 236-1458
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