Cleared by State

WASHINGTON, D.C.- The State Department has announced that Cuba will no longer be designated as a state sponsor of terrorism effective immediately.

"Today's decision, made by Secretary Kerry, is an important step towards achieving normal commercial relations between the United States and Cuba, which has long been a key goal of U.S. rice producers, millers and exporters," said Bob Cummings, USA Rice COO.  "Much work remains, but this step is critical to improving the overall political relationship between the two countries. USA Rice will continue its leadership role in seeking the removal of obstacles to travel and trade with Cuba."  

Removing Cuba from this list also opens up eligibility for aid under the Foreign Assistance Act (FAA), including food assistance programs managed by the U.S. Agency for International Development.    

The State Department noted that, "While the United States has significant concerns and disagreements with a wide range of Cuba's policies and actions, these fall outside the criteria relevant to the rescission of a State Sponsor of Terrorism designation."  

Contact: Kristen Dayton (703) 236-1464 

Busy booth

ILSAN, SOUTH KOREA - Earlier this month, USA Rice opened its popular booth in the U.S. pavilion of the Seoul Food & Hotel Korea exhibition here. The show is Korea's longest running, and Asia's third largest, food trade show with more than 40,000 attendees from 39 countries.

USA Rice displayed U.S. medium and long grain rice and conducted recipe demonstrations using U.S. medium grain rice in kimbob (rice roll wrapped with seaweed) and fried rice. Steamed white rice was presented to showcase the performance of U.S. medium grain rice.

Approximately 1,000 registered guests from food service, food manufacturing and distribution fields visited the USA Rice booth during the show. Among the visitors were representatives of some major food manufacturers interested in using U.S. rice as an ingredient for their product development, such as retort fried rice, rice cakes, and rice flour. USA Rice staff will follow up for possible diversification of U.S. rice into food manufacturing sectors.

The Korean government has purchased 64,000 MT of U.S. brown rice for processing purpose as of May 15, 2015. Another tender was held on May 21, which includes 10,000 MT of USDA #1 medium grain milled rice for table rice purposes and 38,352 MT of USDA #3 Medium Grain Brown Rice for processing purposes. Results of the tender are pending at this time.

Contact: Bill Farmer (832) 302-6710