US rice farmers seal Iran export deal

US rice farmers want to resume sales to Iran

A co-operative of US farmers has sold rice to Iran in the first such deal since President Bill Clinton barred exports to the country seven years ago, a report said.

Iran remembers the high quality of US rice

Richard Bell, president and chief executive, Riceland

"We sold them high quality long grain rice, and it was the first sale of US rice to Iran since 1995," Riceland Foods spokesman Bill Reed told news agency Reuters.

The $1.4m rice shipment could pave the way for renewed trade relations with Iran, even though President George W Bush has retained economic sanctions and insisted that Iran was part of an "axis of evil".

Mr Clinton blackballed Iran over its alleged support for terrorism, easing restrictions on US exports to Iran in 1999 by introducing a trade licensing system.

In response to similar accusations more recently, Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi in August stressed that Iran had "fought terrorism as our national and international responsibility".

Major customer

Riceland, which describes itself as "the world's largest rice milling and marketing organisation", was awarded a one-year export licence in July this year.

The co-operative is keen to rebuild relations with the country which was the world's leading importer of US rice until the late 1970s, when Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini led an Islamic revolution which deposed the Shah of Iran.

Riceland has maintained dialogue with rice importers in Iran ever since.

"We have been looking forward to the day when Iran would once again be a buyer of US rice," Mr Bell added.

"Iran remembers the high quality of US rice."

Nolan Canon, chairman of the US Rice Producers Association, said: "[Iran] was always one of our best cash markets.

"I'll be glad to have any market back to get out of these historically low prices right now," he added, referring to weak global prices for rice.

Iran's rice crop has been hit by drought three years running.

Currently, Iran buys rice from Thailand, Vietnam, Pakistan, India and Uruguay.