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Focus On Quality
Rice Market & Technology Convention 2014 Highlights All Aspects Of Growing Rice
BETTY VALLE GEGG-NAEGER
MidAmerica Farmer Grower
SAN JOSE, COSTA RICA
Individuals involved in rice production, milling, marketing and all other efforts from all over the world were in attendance at the Rice Market & Technology Convention held recently in San Jose, Costa Rica. The US Rice Producers Association (USRPA) has been involved in the conference since 2007; however this was the third year that organization organized and conducted the conference 100 percent out of its offices, with the input of many people from numerous countries.
Not all grain commodities have organized conventions like the rice industry.
“I'm sure there are corn conventions, but I'm not sure if there are soybean conventions. Rice is just a different animal compared to the other commodities, because it's a basic food commodity and feeds more people around the world than any single food product,” said Dwight Roberts, President and CEO of USRPA.
Dwight Roberts, President and CEO of US Rice Producers Association,
spoke to attendees recently at the Rice Market & Technology Convention
held in San Jose, Costa Rica.
Photo by John LaRose
“Rice is largely unprocessed compared to the other program crops in the United States. When I first came on with US Rice Producers, one of their interests was Latin America and I guess we saw the writing on the wall that the way the Americas were developing that was the most important market for long grain rice. So I became more familiar with the rice sector in each individual country. I realized several years ago that it would do us good to get everybody together once a year in a commercial type event, to buy and sell, to learn what's new in technology, to help our allied businesses and give people an opportunity to exchange. For me, personally, it is a chance to promote U.S. rice, and expose the United States to areas of the market that we haven't given attention to, to find out what our competition is doing and help us in marketing rice, maybe find new alternatives. There are other events in Latin America on rice, but they're largely highly technical, research related events where only the scientists and research people, extension-type people participate.
The conference has been growing each year with numbers reaching close to 500 this year.
“Participants registered right up until the opening of the conference as interest becomes stronger every year,” he said. “The numbers have gotten a little bigger over time. There were between 80 to 100 people there in 2007 when the conference was first started in Cancun, Mexico. About 18 or 20 countries were represented. So this year we're around 33 or 35 countries.
”This year’s program included more topics than ever before, covering producer, miller and marketing concerns. There were about 25 different topics with speakers from India, Brazil, Argentina, Columbia, Mexico, the United States and Costa Rica. About 33 speakers were on the program. We attempt to present the leading topics of the market and take a close look at the results of new seed developments that will be important to the industry, both farmers and millers, with the added input from our allied businesses."
“Speakers on the producers side are from the various countries, as there's a lot expertise in Latin America,” he said. “CIAT located in Colombia is a key research institute connected with International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines, so there's a lot of expertise there. There are many people in the audience that would be good presenters too. This is a very highly sought after group of people, and there are some here from research stations in Uruguay who did not speak. Ernesto Sterling and Arnonzo Ria are tremendous scientists, so this conference draws a very unique group of people.”
All the way to milling, a variety of topics were covered, though production received special sessions.
Terry Lavinka from East Bernard, Texas, talked about production, agriculture equipment, machinery, tractors, harvesters, new technology coming down the line. Also in the production aspect, there were pathology, weed control and entomology with Dr. Moe Way out of Texas.
“We had a nitrogen fertilizer application break out session, so we do cater to the farmer. Everything is about quality, and has a link to quality. New seed technology is of particular interest always and this has become a major focus of the conference as the numerous research efforts of Horizon Ag, Bayer Crop Science, RiceTec, Aceituno from Colombia, IRGA in Brazil and other private programs are highlighted,” Roberts added.
The focus is on the Western Hemisphere’s rice production and trade but there were visitors from India, Uganda in Africa, several Europeans, Taiwan, even Pakistan. All are curious about what's going on with rice in the Americas which is the original purpose of the conference.
“There is a cross section of everyone in attendance, as we try to give attention to every aspect of the rice industry from seed development to consumer preferences,” Roberts added. “We feature every aspect of the rice industry. Years ago, all of those areas were more separate, one wasn't interested in the other, but I've come to find that everyone is interested in everything now because quality cuts across all of it. Quality comes in the seed. When you consider the growing importance of cooking quality, that starts in the seed. The seed research people are talking about the consumer interests; the millers are interested in that, the buyer, the seller, exporter, the trader, so it's interesting that quality has hovered over every aspect, starting with the farmer.”
In Latin America, many millers are also producers, especially in South America. Present at the conference was Granos Patron from Mexico and they have a big production project in Southern Mexico in the State of Campeche. Rice millers also have farms that produce rice in Costa Rica and Nicaragua.
“The ones that are very impressive in that area and have done it for years are farther down in South America, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, and Paraguay,” Roberts said. “These are rice mills that raise anywhere from 15,000 to 80,000 acres of rice. Many of these operations attend our conference each year like Adeco Agro from Argentina that raised over 80,000 acres of rice this year. They have three large mills. Companies like Camil, Josepar, Glencore, Agrozafra, SeaAgro and others have branded products on the supermarket shelves but they also have large rice farming operations.”
While these mills do produce rice themselves, they also buy from other farmers and from buying centers, elevators. They all are involved in farming so that makes them very attentive when they come here.
“They wear their farming hat one day and their millers’ hat when they’re talking about equipment or new technology and sortex machines like we heard today from Buhler, a leading milling equipment manufacturer,” he said. “So this is the kind of conference that brings all aspects of the rice industry together. But, like I said, they're all tied in together more than they ever have been before because quality crosses into everything.
“Brazil probably has thousands of mills, but a lot of them are small especially in the north. The major name brand mills are here, and they're an impressive group,” he noted. “Paraguay is also present and they’re a unique country in the fact that 10 years ago they hardly grew any rice at all. There were maybe two farms then; this year they produced 700,000 tons of paddy rice. There are brand new mills all over the southern part of the country. A group of about 30 to 35 people from Paraguay attended the conference, so we have a good representation from throughout the region.”
The United States also was well represented this year. Riceland Foods had a booth, and they've been selling some U.S. rice. Representatives of Poinsett Grain from northeast Arkansas, which has a brown rice mill and operates loading facilities on the Mississippi River for the export market was present. A representative of Riviana Foods, the big milling company in the United States, was also in attendance.
“We've got Planters Rice Mill from Abbyville, La., here,” Roberts continued. “I'd like to see more U.S. millers in attendance. I was talking to LSU professor Dr. Steve Lindscomb, and he brought the point up that our industry needs to be more involved in this type of conference so we can understand our competition. You know, it's one thing to sell everything but we and our people need to hear what's being said, what our competition is doing, what the demands of the markets are so we can meet them. We can't market rice as well today just by keeping within ourselves, that's not the way the market works.”
The interest of the millers brings hope for a larger attendance next year.
“We're already working on ideas for next year,” he said. “I say I'm working on ideas, but I'm also receiving ideas. I walked in the doors the first day here and I had six or eight people say to me, ‘this is great, where are we doing this in 2015?’"
That decision was made recently by the event advisory committee with input from a number of countries. Cancun, Mexico has been selected at the site of next year’s event and the dates have been set for June 2-4, 2015.
“We expect a strong participation as evidenced by the inquiries and requests coming in for booth information, sponsorships, etc.,” Roberts noted. “We are putting together a very popular program that will bring a big participation and provide the all important atmosphere for networking that is so important to attendees.”
One big advantage of having a worldwide convention is the value it brings to millers and marketers who meet with their counterparts in other countries.
“These mills do business with each other, maybe a specialty rice that one has that the other doesn't or different trading options in markets,” Roberts said. “I'm not in those private conversations but I am told, and sometimes I've heard stories that maybe there's a shortage in one and they can't supply a customer so they turn to a partner in another country, make a partnership to supply that type of rice, so that's what we need to do in the United States. This is the way the market is working. There are more and more joint ventures all the time. You see the Brazilians, especially Camil who bought the largest rice company in Uruguay, known as Saman. Then they bought the largest rice mill in Chile known as Tucapel. Camil bought a large packing operation in Peru, so all of these countries are pursuing new opportunities.
There’s a real race to develop new seed technology, and some new seeds will be coming out soon. The new seeds, whether conventional or hybrid or whatever technology, are focused on consumers’ demand for low chalk, grain and cooking quality while making money for the rice farmer with high yields.
The US Rice Producers Association is proud to be the organizer of what has become the most important rice conference in the Americas where US rice is marketed and sold. To keep up to date, visit www.ricemtconvention.com for information. ∆
BETTY VALLE GEGG-NAEGER: Senior Staff Writer, MidAmerica Farmer Grower
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