The Wedding Rice

Wikifarmer and McCann Worldgroup Greece gave a planet-friendly makeover to the famous yet wasteful tradition of tossing rice at weddings by repurposing inedible rice that gets “tossed” during processing, leading to a 260% sales jump and a seal of approval from the Greek government.

Every year in Greece, over 200 tons of edible rice are wasted through the longstanding wedding tradition of showering newlyweds. At the same time, nearly a third of farmers’ harvests are discarded for not meeting commercial standards. This dual waste sparked the creation of The Wedding Rice, a campaign by Wikifarmer, a global platform that supports the farming community, in partnership with McCann Worldgroup Greece. The goal: turn symbolic tradition into sustainable impact. The strategy involved repurposing inedible rice—still perfectly usable for ceremonial purposes—and selling it directly to wedding planners through Wikifarmer’s platform. This circular solution addressed both food waste and the income struggle of local farmers. The B2B idea yielded immediate results. In just one week, over 3 tons of rice were sold, site traffic rose by 110%, and rice sales increased by 260%. The initiative received official endorsement from the Greek government as “an excellent initiative to reduce food waste.”