News

Rice to China to be a boon for Missouri/US growers

The director of emerging markets for the U.S. Rice Producers Association says the official signing of the agreement to ship U.S. rice to China will help ALL U.S. rice growers. Greg Yielding, head of the Missouri Rice Council, says HALF of U.S. rice is exported and having access to the Chinese market be a benefit across-the-board, “If a bunch of rice leaves out of Louisiana, it’s good for Missouri farmers. If a bunch of rice leaves out of Arkansas, it’s good for Missouri farmers. If Missouri has a bunch leaving out, it’s good as a whole.”

Yielding tells Brownfield the agreement between the USDA’s Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) and its equivalent in China has been in place for two years, waiting for those signatures.

U.S. rice mills and processors have put insect traps in to meet the phyto-sanitary requirements of China and Yielding says the Chinese will come back to re-inspect before shipments can go out, “They don’t want any quarantine pests or any storage pests that might come from the U.S. over to China to contaminate what they have. And, that’s very understandable. We don’t want pests coming from other countries into the U.S. either.”

China is the largest producer, consumer and importer of rice in the world.  Arkansas has the most rice acres in the U.S. Missouri is fourth.

AUDIO – Interview with Greg Yielding, July 24, 2017: