It’s been over three months since 32 U.S. rice facilities interested in exporting milled rice to China were approved.

The U.S. can legally export rice, but it probably won’t happen until the trade dispute is over.

Dustin Harrell, Extension Rice Specialist/Research Agronomist with LSU Ag Rice Research Station, says the U.S. has been trying over 2 1/2 decades to reach an agreement with China to sell rice there.

“It would be a potential new market, and it would mean a lot to us here in the U.S. Now we’ve gone back and forth over the years, and finally, we’ve settled on a phytosanitary agreement between the U.S. and China where we could legally export rice over there,” added Harrell.

Harrell says once that was passed, China said only a handful of rice and export facilities were approved to export rice to China.

Now, all Louisiana rice mills can export rice to China.

Harrell explained, “However, once that was settled, we’ve had a trade war with China, and we’ve had tariffs back-and-forth between the two countries and because of all that, we really haven’t even sold any rice to China so even though we are legally can sell, we probably won’t see any rice sold to China until this trade disputes over.”

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