The SunRice group, with headquarters in Leeton, has won the Agribusiness, Food and Beverages Award at the 61st annual Australian Export Awards at Parliament House.

The top prize was presented to CEO Paul Serra by the Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade), which administers the nation’s longest running export awards program.

The decision by the Federal Government department to recognise SunRice came just days before the Federal Senate passed a controversial new bill giving the government increased powers to buy back water from irrigators.

Ricegrowers were among a number of irrigator and business groups who staged mass protests across the Riverina against the Federal Government’s Water Amendment (Restoring Our Rivers) Bill 2023 in November 2023.

However Mr Serra said the rice sector could still have a bright future.

“Although the Federal Government’s recent legislation around the Restoring our Rivers bill will present new challenges for our industry to remain globally competitive, we are confident to be an exporter of premium rice products around the world for many years to come,” he said.

SunRice group’s global reputation and multi-market strategy allows it to source paddy rice from 12 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,” Mr Serra said.

“As a global FMCG business and one of Australia’s leading value-added food exporters with a 70-plus 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.” 

This article appeared in the Narrandera Argus, 14 December 2023.