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For the U.S. rice industry, opportunity
is knocking on Miami’s door
so pack your bags for the Sunshine
State and make plans to
attend the 1st Americas Rice Convention,
June 5-7 at the Downtown Miami Hilton
Hotel. At press time for this article, more
than 200 rice companies and mills from
more than 30 countries had registered for
the big event with close to 500 participants.
Why attend? Nowhere will you be able
to meet a concentration of rice buyers, sellers
and affiliated industries than at the
Americas Rice Convention. With the
United States exporting 50 percent of its
rice crop, it’s imperative that the members
of the USA Rice Federation and the US
Rice Producers Association have a strong
presence at this big event in an effort to
project a strong image for U.S. rice.
Rice buyers from countries such as
Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti,
Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama
and Venezuela plan to attend. These markets
represent the most important markets
for U.S. long-grain rice in the world.
Program Preview
The opening address from Dr. C. Peter
Timmer, Professor of Development Studies
from Harvard University, titled “The
Changing Role of Rice in Global Food
Security: Implications for Latin America”
is of interest to everyone. Dr. Timmer also
serves as an advisor to the Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation. As Dr. Timmer states,
“There is surprising news about the
dynamics of rice consumption in Africa
and the Americas.”
The program continues with Joel
Widenor of the Commodity Weather
Group LLC, Juan Ignacio Fernandez,
Director for the Port Administration of
Veracruz, Mexico, and Jeffrey Fajardo, a
specialist in international relations and
negotiations from Colombia’s Rice Millers
Association, who will discuss what free
trade means for rice.
The always popular Dr. Steve Linscombe
will address “Seed Purity is Not An
Accident.” Breakout sessions will be conducted
by RiceTec, Horizon Ag and a special
panel with research representatives
from the United States, Brazil, Uruguay,
Argentina, Peru and Colombia discussing
variety development programs.
Breakout Sessions
“Managing Rice Margins and Profits in
the Americas via U.S. Rice Futures” is the
title of a breakout session to be conducted
by Firstgrain, The Price Futures Group,
White Commercial Corporation and the
Chicago Mercantile Exchange. A publications
round table will involve Creed Rice
Report, Agrotendencias, Firstgrain, Rice
Market Letter, Live Rice Index and other
invited publications.
Additional breakout sessions will
include a Mercosur: Supply/Demand
Update and a “Come Meet the Sellers” session.
Dennis DeLaughter will address the
topic “Can we determine the price of rice?”
The closing session consists of Alex
Fernando de Alencar, the Global Rice
Market Area Head for Bayer CropScience
based in Singapore, Thomas Wynn, PHD
candidate from Texas A&M, and closing
out the conference will be Robert Papanos,
the World Rice Market Analyst whose presentation
is titled “Asian Politics Set World
Rice Prices.”
Go to americasriceconvention.com,
and we’ll see you in Miami!
For more, visit www.usriceproducers.com. |
