U.S. Rice Responds as El Niño Takes Its Toll in Central and South America
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ARLINGTON, VA -- This is the second year in a row the Southern Hemisphere's cereal harvest has been negatively affected by severe dry weather related to El Niño and some are saying it's the worst in the past 18 years. El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua have begun distributing agricultural aid packages to hundreds of thousands of farmers to support them in the second planting season.
Countries throughout South America have also been hit hard by El Niño. Venezuela, which has suffered major crop shortages, has turned to the U.S. to fulfill its consumption needs. Total rough rice sales to Venezuela are at nearly 150,000 MT within just the past two months. At the same time, Panamanian farmers had to reduce rice planting by 50 percent because of water shortages and U.S. sales rose to 60,000 MT. Guatemala and Honduras have imported nearly 20,000 MT each this year. As noted earlier this month (see USA Rice Daily, September 9, 2015), Honduran drought conditions led to a rice shortage and an allowance for imports of 25,000 MT of U.S. rice above the tariff rate quota amount.
"The substantial reduction in local production in the region has led to a surge of U.S. rice exports in a short time period," said Brian King, chairman of the USA Rice Western Hemisphere Promotion Subcommittee. "Our sympathies go to the farmers in these countries as we know all too well how unpredictable Mother Nature can be."
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Hy-Vee Dietitians Urge Shoppers to Think Rice
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ARLINGTON, VA -- This September, USA Rice partnered with supermarket registered dietitians (SRDs) at Hy-Vee, a chain with 236 supermarkets located throughout Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. All month long, Hy-Vee SRDs spread the word about U.S.-grown rice and National Rice Month (NRM) online, in stores, and through local media outlets
In the September issue of Hy-Vee's Healthy Bites e-newsletter, USA Rice's Cranberry Pecan Rice Pilaf was featured as a 'Dietitian Recipe of the Month.' The newsletter promoted NRM as well as the health benefits and culinary versatility of rice to more than 90,000 subscribers and was also published on the Hy-Vee website that receives more than 800,000 unique visitors per month.
"Since Hy-Vee has an in-store dietitian at each of their locations, we made sure they received USA Rice's recipe cards and SRD toolkits to use while interacting with shoppers," said Paul Galvani, chairman of the USA Rice Retail Subcommittee. "One dietitian even created a short Facebook video right from the rice aisle - she called out NRM and discussed the health and affordability of U.S. rice."
As part of the NRM promotion, the Hy-Vee corporate dietitian team provided all in-store dietitians with a 'Think Rice for Family Meals and Sides' media pitch to use with local media outlets. Several news article placements and one local TV segment called attention to NRM and featured content from USA Rice's SRD toolkit. All together, these placements exposed more than one million consumers to the health, economic, and culinary benefits of U.S.-grown rice.
"Hy-Vee is a food retailer known for its health and wellness initiatives, so partnering with their dietitians to promote U.S. rice was quite valuable," said Galvani. "This is just one example of how USA Rice partners with retail grocers to communicate our message. Hy-Vee dietitians are trusted champions of U.S.-grown rice and we thank them for their support and promotion of National Rice Month."
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Weekly Rice Sales, Exports Reported
| WASHINGTON, DC -- Net rice sales of 70,500 MT for 2015/2016, up 19 percent from the previous week and 5 percent from the prior four-week average, were reported for Japan (24,100 MT), Mexico (23,200 MT), Haiti (11,500 MT), unknown destinations (5,900 MT), and Canada (2,100 MT), according to today's Export Sales Highlights report. Decreases were reported for Taiwan (400 MT).
Exports of 42,200 MT, down 55 percent from the previous week and 60 percent from the prior four-week average, were reported to Haiti (15,200 MT), Japan (12,000 MT), Mexico (3,100 MT), South Korea (2,900 MT), and Canada (2,400 MT).
This summary is based on reports from exporters from the period September 18-24, 2015.
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| CME Group/Closing Rough Rice Futures | CME Group (Prelim): Closing Rough Rice Futures for October 1
| November 2015 | $13.000 |
+ $0.100
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January 2016
| $13.580 |
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March 2016
| $13.840 |
+ $0.100
| | May 2016 | $13.980 |
+ $0.095
| | July 2016 | $14.105 |
+ $0.085
| | September 2016 | $13.185 |
+ $0.035
| November 2016
| $13.185
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+ $0.035
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In the News
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Around Washington
The continuing resolution (CR) passed by the Senate and House on Wednesday buys some time for Republican congressional leaders to reach a deal with the White House on a government-wide bill for fiscal 2016.
At the heart of the issue were memos released in July by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works Jo-Ellen Darcy said that the memos don't necessarily reflect the official opinion of the Corps, adding that some people within the unit "had some differing opinions on some of the final decisions that needed to be made in order to finalize this rule.
Tariffs and Trade
The TPP seeks to cut trade barriers and set common standards among a dozen nations reaching from Japan to Chile, but talks have become snared over a small set of issues, including dairy trade and patent periods for biologic drugs.
The next in the series of University of Arkansas Food and Agribusiness Webinars will present a discussion of the USITC's investigation of the "Global Competitiveness of the U.S. Rice Industry" by three of the report's authors on October 7 at 11 a.m.
Science and Technology
One of the biggest impediments to getting purple rice to commercial markets is that it's incredibly high maintenance. It has to be isolated from other rice at every step of production - planting, harvesting, processing, packaging. If mixed with other varieties, the rice's identity is compromised.
Nature and the Environment
The CEOs of several major food and beverage companies are calling on world leaders to push for a meaningful agreement at the United Nation's conference on climate change later this year in Paris. The 10 companies (General Mills, Mars Inc., Unilever, Dannon, Ben & Jerry's, Kellogg, Nestle USA, New Belgium Brewing, Stonyfield Farms, and Clif Bar) say they will "re-energize" their own efforts to make their supply chains more sustainable as well.
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| Mission Statement | | USA Rice is the global advocate for all segments of the U.S. rice industry with a mission to promote and protect the interests of producers, millers, merchants and allied businesses. |
| About Us | Editor: Michael Klein
(703) 236-1458
mklein@usarice.com
Fax (703) 236-2301
2101 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 610
Arlington, VA 22201
This report is time-sensitive, based on information available at press time. Content is derived from facts and sources believed to be reliable. Reprinting and/or distribution may be done with permission of USA Rice.
Copyright © 2015. Please direct comments or questions to the editor or contact name listed for each story. |
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