Riceland Covid19 Response

Riceland COVID-19 Response

As the COVID-19 situation continues to evolve rapidly, it remains top of mind for our employees, our farmer members, our customers and our consumers. In these uncertain times, we play an important role in ensuring a strong and steady food chain supply to feed our communities and support our customers with high-quality and nutritious rice in this time of need. Thank you to all our family farmers and employees who help make this happen.

We Care About Our Team

Our top priority is keeping Riceland employees, their families, our family farmers and our communities safe and healthy.

Riceland Foods is considered an “essential critical infrastructure industry” by the United States Department of Homeland Security; and, therefore operations must continue. The farmer-owned cooperative will remain open to fulfill the demand for rice and oil products across Arkansas and the nation.

We are proactively working together and communicating daily with leaders across all Riceland locations to monitor the situation and implement best practices to protect the health and safety of our employees and customers based on guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Riceland has taken the following actions, consistent with our Business Continuity Plans:

Proactively monitoring the developing situation to ensure that we have the most updated information as it becomes available.
Providing our team members with information and best practices to prevent the spread of any illness, including the implementation of precautionary measures in our offices and in all outlying facilities, modeled in the “Interim Guidance for Businesses and Employers” of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Employee business travel has been suspended.
Reducing visitors to our facilities to only those deemed essential.
Requiring any team member who may be symptomatic to not come to work and seek medical attention from their healthcare provider.
Enabling work from home capabilities for team members when deemed necessary.

We Care About Food Safety

Riceland is committed to ensuring our products are safe and meet all food safety and regulatory requirements outlined by the CDC, USDA and FDA. According to the CDC, “Coronaviruses are generally thought to be spread from person-to-person through respiratory droplets. Currently there is no evidence to support transmission of COVID-19 associated with food.” The USDA has aligned with the CDC guidelines, and the FDA is “not aware of any reports of transmission through food or food packaging.”

Riceland will continue to comply with all requirements and guidelines in regards to food safety, while we continue to monitor all updates and requirements from the CDC, local, state and federal governments.

Thank you for your continued confidence in Riceland Foods, Inc.