Cambodia’s paddy rice is flowing to the market in Vietnam as local farmers are harvesting the latest crop of the year.
Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Veng Sakhon said to date a total of 22,131 tonnes of different varieties of paddy rice was exported to Vietnam.
“The export is done through Prey Veng province and there are a total of 10,524 tonnes per day, but on some days 22,131 tonnes have been exported to Vietnam, ” he said.
Prey Veng province isn’t the only exporting checkpoint of paddy rice to Vietnam, but also Svay Rieng, Takeo, Kampong Cham and Kampot.
According to Minister Sakhon, until November 12, there has been a total 1,536,350 tonnes of paddy rice exported to Vietnam with different prices depending on quality and varieties. For example, Rumduol is $ 0.27 per kilogramme, IR 504 is $0.22 and OM 5451 is $ 0.22.
Yan Moth, chairman of Meanchey community, in Ba Phnom district, Prey Veng province told Khmer Times by phone that middlemen have come to buy the paddy rice from farmers in his community for export to Vietnam for the last month.
“The middlemen came and bought directly from our farmers and exported about four to five trucks to Vietnam per day,” he said.
Seng Van, chairman of Prey Kraing Mean Rith community in Dang Tung district, Kampot province also shares the news about the price of paddy rice to Khmer Times by phone.
Last year, its price was down to $0.17 to 0.19 per kilogramme and sometimes the middlemen did not come to buy, but this year the price is good with some selling for $0.24 per kilogramme, he said.
“Yesterday, we sold at only $0.23 and today we can sell at $0.24 per kilogramme,” he added.
Vietnam is currently one of the main buyers of Cambodia’s paddy rice, but most of the exports have no clear record and some have been done by smuggling.
Besides exporting to neighboring countries, Cambodia also exported milled rice directly to the international market.
According to the Cambodia Rice Federation (CRF), Cambodia exported 536,305 tonnes of milled rice in the first ten months of 2020, a year-on-year increase of 17.11 percent.
China remains the biggest market for Cambodian milled rice.
Within the 10-month period, China and other Autonomous territories take 36 percent of Cambodia’s overall milled rice exports, with 27 countries in Europe buying 32 percent, six Asean members at 13 percent, 10 countries in Africa buying nine percent, countries in Asia-Oceania (especially Australia and New Zealand) six percent, dependent territories/department of overseas countries two percent, and countries in North America and Asia-Middle East taking the remaining two percent.
Cambodia’s gross revenue from rice exports in the first ten months of this year increased by nearly $47 million or 15 percent compared to the same period in 2019.
The figures from the Cambodia Rice Federation showed that the Kingdom earned in total $366.44 million from rice exports, in the January-October period.
This article was first published in Khmer Times. All contents and images are copyright to their respective owners and sources.
