PhnomPenhPost-Sept 12, 2023
Cambodia once set a goal to export up to one million tons of milled rice by 2015, but today, nearly ten years later, the goal has yet to be reached. In 2022, milled rice export amounted to 640,000 tons, which was only a slight increase from the total in 2021. In the previous election mandate (2018 to 2023), the government called milled rice “white gold” and had a high ambition to become the “largest milled rice exporter in the world” among its competitors in the region. Having become a country with rice surplus in 2022, thanks to a harvest of 6.3 million tons, the Kingdom decided to address the rising yield by expanding export markets. “Cambodia’s milled rice markets are growing now, which is better than in the past. I said it is better because we had to look for international markets in the past. The government had always requested their counterparts to buy our milled rice. “But now, things have changed. Although we continue looking for more markets, we have seen a positive trend. Friends of Cambodia have requested to buy from us,” said Ministry of Commerce spokesman Pen Sovicheat. Although deals by foreign countries, which requested to buy milled rice from Cambodia in the past, such as the Philippines and Indonesia, did not formalize previously, the two countries have made an official proposal to buy Cambodia’s milled rice due to food security measures. “We feel proud that they are requesting to buy our milled rice. What we have to do now is to continue upgrading our rice quality and raise the export quantity to meet the demand as stated in those agreements,” Sovicheat said. Last week, Indonesia said they planned to increase rice imports to 250,000 tonnes a year from Cambodia to preserve its food security. Read more at: https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/cambodian-rice-benefits-global-security-woes
