Sun Valley Rice, a California-based rice company, has announced that they would be exporting rice over to China. Channel 3000 reported that the rice company closed a deal with a Chinese importer and became the first-ever producer from the US to sell rice to China.
It is also big news since the US and China are still in a series of talks over how they can come to terms concerning their trade dispute.
Betsy Ward, president of national trade association USA Rice, said that it certainly wasn't easy to secure the contract since China had policies making it hard for the US to import rice there. In 2018, China and the US came into agreement to legalize the exportation of rice to China.
More than two dozen US companies had been trying to enter deals to export rice, but Sun Valley was the first company to close a contract.
Sun Valley is a family-owned business out of Sacramento, California. It has also been trying to break into the Chinese market for about 15 years, with people traveling over to China to get insight into the market. This was shared by Ken LaGrande, whose father Michael was his partner in founding the company.
News from Global Trade Mag confirmed that the company will indeed supply rice to China, specifically its premium California Calrose medium-grain rice meant for retail or food distribution. Ken LaGrande said of this achievement that "fifteen years of patience and hard work" finally paid off and felt honored and privileged to be the first American rice company to import rice into China.
The LaGrande Family Foods Group subsidiary will be exporting rice into Shenzhen Hong Tai, which is also one of the biggest rice importers in the country. The overseas director of Shenzhen Yintou and vice president for Dragon Ocean hing Group, William Li, also said that their selection process included a company that valued Asian cultures, which Sun Valley Rice displayed to them.
Sun Valley is already exporting its product to the European Union, another region where the US is currently in a dispute with. The US rice industry is already riddled with enough disruptions in trade, due to policies that were designed to protect humans, animals, and plants.
LaGrande commented that they are prepared for any possibilities and remained hopeful that the contract with Shenzhen Hong Tai will pave the way for future deals between the Chinese and the US.
