<\/p>\n
The CRF also encourages farmers to form agricultural cooperatives so it is easier to develop contract farming with exporters and processors to maintain the market, remain up-to-date regarding information related to the markets and to keep s steady price for agricultural products.<\/p>\n
Mak Soeun, deputy director-general of agriculture at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries, said that the ministry has researched many rice seeds to make pure varieties for distribution to agricultural cooperatives and farmers.<\/p>\n
The Cambodian Agricultural Research and Development Institute has worked on finding the best seeds, Soeun said.<\/p>\n
Good quality and competitive rice varieties include Pkar Romdul, Pkar Romeat, Pkar Romdeng and Sen Kra Ob, he added.<\/p>\n
According to the CRF, the price of rice is $680 to $720 per tonne of fragrant rice in the second harvest season, which starts from December to January next year.<\/p>\n
Saran said the current price of milled rice in international markets decreased about 10 percent compared with the first harvest season, from July to August, when the price was $750 to $780 per tonne.<\/p>\n
To help rice millers to buy paddy rice from farmers in the harvest season, the government has disbursed $50 million twice this year, aiming to keep the price down and to avoid the export of good quality paddy rice to neighbouring countries through rice traders in case local rice millers lack the capacity to collect paddy rice because of insufficient capital flows.<\/p>\n
Kao Thach, director general of the state-run Rural Development Bank (RDB), said that the programme of keeping the price of paddy rice steady was started in 2016 through emergency loans to rice millers to buy paddy rice each season and for them to build rice facilities including warehouses and silos.<\/p>\n
The government provided $50 million earlier this month as capital to the RDB, renaming it the Rural Development and Agriculture Bank and making it a commercial enterprise to disburse cash to rice millers.<\/p>\n
The first $50 million of disbursement started in mid-2019.<\/p>\n
The aim is to raise the price. Before the $50 million was disbursed from the government, the price of paddy rice in some areas was below 900 riel ($0.23) per kilogramme. After the announcement, it increased to 1,000 Riel per kg and even more than 1,000 riel per kg in some areas. The current price gives farmers a much greater margin,\u201d Mr Thach said.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/capitalcambodia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Page-5.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
New markets expanded<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Cambodia has a quota of400,000 tones that China allows Cambodia to export. According to the CRF, the quota will be implemented from early 2020.<\/p>\n Last week, the Chinese government allowed 18 new local rice millers to export to China, increasing the number to 44 rice millers exporting to China.<\/p>\n Cooperation with China is good, enabling export amounts to increases by 34 percent as of November\u00a0 2019 compared with the same period last year, Mr Saran said, adding that almost of 80 percent rice export to China is fragrant rice.<\/p>\n Cambodia\u2019s rice ranks fourth among rice exporters to China out of 12 countries, according to Saran.<\/p>\n \u201cWith 18 new rice millers, there is the capacity to mill and export up to half\u00a0 a million tonnes so if China places new orders, we are able to export it to them,\u201d Mr Saran said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe CRF has requested the government to disburse emergency loans because we have markets already. If we have a\u00a0 budget for buying paddy rice, I think that the processing and milling will fill the quota as mentioned in accordance with the agreement the two government signed,\u201d Saran said.<\/p>\n To facilitate the trade, the Agriculture Ministry has actively joined in efforts to find markets said\u00a0 Soeun from the Agriculture Ministry.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThis year, China imported from Cambodia 205,000 tons of milled rice. We hope that in 2020, the figure will increase,\u201d Soeun said.<\/p>\n With the emergency loans from the RDB, main rice producing areas including Battambang, Kampong Thom, Prey Veng and Takeo have enough rice facilities such as warehouses and silos.<\/p>\n The capacity of a rice warehouse is 1 million tonnes and silo facilities can cope with 26,000 tonnes per day, according to the CRF.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Diversifying markets<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThe CRF has re-focused its plan for a million tonnes of milled rice exports within three years by concentrating on fragrant, sustainable and organic rice,\u201d Mr Saran said. \u201cIn the EU, we are trying to diversify rice exports. We do not focus on exports of only one rice variety.\u201d<\/p>\n Soeun, from Ministry of Agriculture, said that the ministry is preparing a policy for organic agricultural practices. We are applying the organic standard of Cambodia,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cCambodia\u2019s organic rice ranks fifth in the EU and we are committed to competing to become number two or number three there,\u201d Mr Saran said.<\/p>\n For Saran, although facing a number of issues that need to be addressed and enhanced, Cambodia\u2019s ambition of exporting 1 million tons of milled rice would be within reach.<\/p>\n \u201cWe designate fragrant rice for promoting exports, which we register under the trademark Malys Angkor. Our rice is quality \u2013 our fragrant rice has won the world\u2019s best rice award four times,\u201d Saran said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fragrant strains prove to be most popular<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3402,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":null,"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":null,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[610,43],"yoast_head":"\n