The Thai royal family have bestowed their top award on Ceres Organics new Black Rice Crackers in their National Rice Berry Competition. Manufactured in Thailand by Bio Asia, a company that is partly owned by Ceres Organics, the Black Rice Crackers won out against a wide variety of other FMCG products containing Rice Berry.
The Thai royal family runs the awards to help promote Rice Berry, a new variety of rice that was developed in Thailand by the Rice Science Center of Kasetsart University in 2012.
Rice Berry is a cross-bread of two high quality strains of rice – Jasmine rice and Black Fragment rice. It contains high levels of antioxidants such as Beta-carotene, Vitamin-E, Tannin, Zinc, Folate, and Omega3.
Managing Director of Ceres Organics Noel Josephson, who has just been in Thailand visiting the Bio Asia operation, says it was a real honour for a New Zealand product to be awarded such a prestigious award by the Thai royals. “Thailand is very keen to see Rice Berry become more popular all over the world, so it’s great that our Black Rice Crackers have been flying off the shelves since we launched them throughout the Asia-Pacific Region this year, and this award is an acknowledgement of just how good this product is,” Josephson says. “It’s also wonderful that we have a successful business partnership with the company that is manufacturing our certified organic rice products in Thailand,” he says.
New Zealand-owned Ceres Organics has the largest range of organic products under one brand in Australasia with over 360 certified organic products in the range. Originally started 30 years ago as an organic vege co-op working out of a garage, Ceres Organics currently employs 150 people with distribution across major supermarkets, health food and organics stores and works with suppliers and distributors globally.
