Dubai gets a taste of Thailand’s best rice
Retailers and residents of Dubai are hopefully more enthusiastic about Thai rice following a trade fair last month where it was heavily promoted.
The Department of Foreign Trade put on a show of rice and other agricultural goods at Gulfood 2020 in Dubai from February 16-20, hoping to boost sales across the Middle East, director-general Keerati Ratchano reported this week.
“We presented samples of jasmine, white, parboiled and sticky rice and had information boards to raise awareness about the high standards involved in cultivating and marketing Thai rice.”
For the health-conscious, there for the tasting were high-nutrition riceberry rice, black rice, red rice, RD43 rice and RD79 rice.
“Our booth received a good response from buyers, importers, distributors and visitors – about 1,000 people in all – and they asked many detailed questions about the characteristics, standards and prices,” Keerati said.
“More than 100 importers from around the world – from India, the Philippines, Bahrain, Jordan, Australia and South Africa – were interested in our innovative agricultural goods, both food and non-food products."
“The most popular products were black garlic, coconut yoghurt, young-rice milk, flavourings made with natural ingredients and baby foods.”
The trade fair was a good opportunity for Thai entrepreneurs to expand their market to the Middle East, he said.
Gulfood is the largest international food-and-beverage exhibition held in the Middle East, with more than 98,000 people attending annually on average.
This 25th edition had 4,210 exhibitors from 90 countries, including the United States, Argentina, Italy, Turkey and China.