Reuters says a private importer in China purchased rice from the U.S for the first time ever, even though the two countries are in the middle of a trade war.
Michael Klein, a spokesman for USA Rice, says a Chinese importer bought two containers, or about 40 tons, of medium-grain rice from Sun Valley Rice, based in California.
USA Rice is an industry trade group that promotes the sale of U.S. rice.
The American rice was then milled and packaged into bags for consumer and food service use.
China was a major buyer of U.S. soybeans and pork before the trade war between the two countries began.
President Trump said recently that China agreed to make unspecified purchases of U.S. farm products after a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping while in Japan.
Those purchases of major export crops have been few and far between, so far.
A rice industry report says it wasn’t clear if the rice purchase was another goodwill gesture from China to the U.S after the Japan meeting.
