January 16, 2009

Results for the School Nutrition Program in Central America have exceeded expectations for 2008. The promotion was conducted at 1,347 schools in Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Costa Rica. At these schools, 29,939 school cooks were trained to prepare low cost, nutritious meals for the 341,624 students who attend the schools.

The 2008 promotion year had a late start due to the delay in the ratification of the new Farm Bill, but the teams worked very hard to provide an effective program. Prices in grains - rice, beans and soy - were double in most of these countries and inflation rates were running as high as 20 percent in some of the countries. This made it even more important to the schools to be able to provide low cost, nutritious meals to the children during a time of increasingly high prices. Additionally, some countries' rice industries, the importers of U.S. rice, were under tremendous pressure from their governments to lower the price of rice to consumers and to buy less expensive rice from non-U.S. sources. By participating in the USA Rice, Beans & Soy School Nutrition Program, they were able to show government officials they were involved in helping the consumer in the country reduce food costs. The U.S. rice industry provides virtually 100 percent of the rice imports to Central America. Most of this rice imported is rough rice. These programs, conducted with the cooperation of the local rice industries, are essential to maintaining a 100 percent market share for U.S. rice.

December 5, 2008

Texas producers Ray Stoesser and Andy Anderson and Missouri producers Gary Murphy and Scott Wheeler accompanied Mississippi producer Penn Owen to Guatemala and Costa Rica to observe the USA Rice, Beans & Soy School Nutrition Program, as well as retail market promotions. The School promotions have been conducted in 1,000 schools, training about 30,000 cooks and providing nutritious meals to 290,000 children.

The program, conducted in Guatemala, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua, combines promotion of three U.S. products:  rice, soy and dry beans. The US Rice Producers Association also conducts retail promotions of rice in cooperation with the Guatemalan Rice Association, ARROZGUA. These promotions include common markets, grocery stores, health fairs, women’s groups and others. USRPA has been conducting promotions in Guatemala for 10 years. During this time, the per capita consumption of rice has doubled.