STUTTGART, AR — Last week, USA Rice traveled here to meet with and informally address the Riceland Foods’ 24-member Board of Directors amid the tumultuous farm economy as part of its annual three-day meeting.
USA Rice President & CEO Peter Bachmann provided detailed updates on industry advocacy around additional economic assistance for the 2025 crop and efforts around securing rice-specific tariff increases to stem the flow of imports. He also covered topics regarding U.S. Jasmine rice promotions, additional crop insurance options for aromatic rice, and more.
“We are grateful that Peter was able to join us last week and help further educate our board on the legislative and policy efforts underway by USA Rice that should help further support our membership and the entire U.S. rice industry,” said Riceland Foods President & CEO Kevin McGilton. “While we often talk about how our team is partnering with our national trade association in Washington and engaging at the grassroots level, it was nice for many of our board members to put a face to the name and have the opportunity to ask questions at a dinner the night prior to Peter’s remarks and also following his remarks.”
Riceland Foods, founded in 1921, is the country’s largest farmer-owned rice cooperative, with more than 5,500 owner members. Last month, Riceland Foods announced it would be temporarily closing nine drying facilities for the 2026 crop year due to a series of factors, including the smallest rice acreage planted this year since the early 1970s.
USA Rice continues to advocate to the Administration for the initiation of a rice-specific Section 301 investigation to help protect the domestic market from the more than 1.5 million metric tons of illegally over-subsidized annual rice imports.
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