China purchases first shipment of U.S. rice

Jul 08, 2019

A California-based company secured the contract

By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com

The U.S. and China are finding new ways to do business together despite a trade war over soybeans and other commodities.

China purchased about 40 tons of rice from the United States last week, Reuters reported. The transaction marks the first time China is importing U.S. rice.

Industry reps hope this purchase can turn into a sustainable relationship.

“The potential of the Chinese market is huge,” Michael Klein, a spokesman for USA Rice, told Farms.com. “They actually consume the entire U.S. crop (9.9 million tons in 2017) every two weeks. For that market to open up and be a dependable market would be a huge boom for the U.S. industry.”

In December 2018, China announced it would start to allow imports of American rice so long as the shipments meet the country’s inspection standards and are registered with the USDA.

But the work to even get to that point goes back more than a decade, Klein said.

“We’ve been working on the phytosanitary protocol for about 12 years,” he said. “It’s the most complex protocol the U.S. rice industry has ever been a part of. The (Obama) administration got it to the goal line, and it was one of Secretary Perdue’s priorities to get that done.”

Without the phytosanitary measures, exporting rice to China is illegal, Klein said.

A California-based company secured the contract for the Chinese shipment.

Sun Valley Rice in Colusa County sold the cargo of Calrose medium-grain rice to Shenzhen Yintuo, a private importer and exporter.

Having the company’s name attached to the first U.S. shipment of rice to reach China is exciting, said Steve Vargas, senior vice-president of global trading for Sun Valley Rice and vice-chair of the USA Rice International Promotion Committee.

“We’re very happy that they chose us,” he told Farms.com. “It’s a big step for the national rice industry and we hope it’s the first of more sales to come.”

The rice will be shipped out later this month after it’s packaged, Vargas said.

“The cargo is in the process of being packaged,” he said “There’s retail and food service packaging that needs to be done. The shipment will leave the U.S. towards the end of July and early August and should arrive in China in time for a harvest festival.”

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.