SunRice takes home Gold at the Australian Export Awards

The SunRice Group is thrilled to have been awarded the Agribusiness, Food and Beverages Award at the 61st Australian Export Awards.

Held at Parliament House, the Award is in recognition of outstanding international success in the feld of agricultural products, including manufactured foods and beverages.

• The SunRice Group is one of Australia’s most iconic food brands and Australia’s number one rice brand. The business started over 70 years ago when a group of Riverina rice growers pooled their resources to build a single rice mill in the 1950s. Today SunRice is a $1.6b ASX-listed FMCG company selling more than 1,500 products, under 35 major brands into over 50 countries.

• It is also a key contributor to the regional Australian economy. In a production year of 600,000 paddy tonnes of rice, the SunRice Group employs over 650 staff and contributes close to $500m in direct payments to the regional economy.

Commenting on the announcement, SunRice

Group CEO Paul Serra said: “This is a great achievement and will be celebrated right across our business and industry, from the paddy to the plate.”

“As a global FMCG business and one of Australia’s leading value-added food exporters with a 70+ year heritage, our success is underpinned by our great people, our farmers who are amongst the best rice growers in the world, our valued customers and our ongoing commitment to research and development to maintain Australia’s global reputation as a leader in rice products.”

The SunRice Group has with its partners including Australian growers, governments and industry bodies created a world leading rice industry over many decades. The Australian rice industry considers itself to be a leader in water effciency and is world leading in its rice yields.

“Although the Federal government’s recent legislation reintroducing water buy backs will present new challenges for our industry to remain globally competitive, we hope to be an exporter of premium rice products around the world for many years to come.”

The Group’s global reputation and multimarket strategy allows it to source paddy rice from 12 different countries, including Australia.

“This strategy helps the SunRice Group to satisfy global demand for our products and manage increasing climate variability that creates supply challenges,” said Mr Serra.

In Financial Year 2023, SunRice leveraged strong Australian rice crops to target new opportunities in drought-affected markets like the US and Europe. It also re-entered premium rice tender markets in Asia, including Japan and Korea.

“The resulting strong performance meant that Australian rice growers were paid a record naturally determined paddy price last year. This historic record is testament to the strength and provenance of the SunRice brand and the strong sales volumes achieved in premium destination markets,” Mr Serra said. -