Rice

Cambodian lawmakers have passed a new law on agriculture, but critics say the law does not go far enough to protect the country’s farmers. The law passed on Thursday evening, but not before debate at the National Assembly. During the debate opposition representatives called on the ...

Following a considerable increase in Cambodia’s milled rice exports in the first four months of the year, Minister of Commerce Cham Prasidh said he was optimistic the Kingdom’s rice exports would reach the 2015 target of one million tonnes. With this year’s export figures notably higher ...

While significant obstacles remain, the success of the rice sector is a potentially crucial driver in Cambodia’s prosperous and equitable development. Cambodia announced two major bilateral trade agreements recently, with the Philippines and Thailand, that are expected to further expand the country’s rice export sector. ...

Major financial institutions show more trust in providing loans to the agricultural sector, evidenced by increasing agricultural loan disbursement, thanks to potential growth in the sector and better preparation of financial report among borrowers, according to industry insiders. Acleda Bank, Cambodia’s largest domestically owned bank, has ...

Milled rice exports have seen dramatic growth this year as the sector begins to take advantage of duty-free exports to European countries, an official and the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said. Thon Virak, director of state-owned rice exporter Green Trade, said Tuesday that in ...

“The agriculture sector today is still playing significant role in promoting local production growth, job creation, and contributing to the poverty reduction of the people.  At the same time, the agriculture sector will continue the basic role for economic growth and socio-economic development in Cambodia in ...

Cambodia announced two major bilateral trade agreements last month, with the Philippines and Thailand, that are expected to further expand the country’s rice export sector. Over the last few years, Cambodia has emerged as a major rice exporter in the region, due in large part ...

After the fourth Joint Trade Commission (JTC) recently, Commerce Minister Boonsong Teriyapirom said that Thailand and Cambodia had the potential to drive two-way trade up by 30 per cent, due to strong growth in 2012. Last year, bilateral trade grew by 40.5 per cent year on ...

To enhance Cambodian rice yields, the government should encourage private development of rice-seed production and focus its efforts on farmers’ education and regulations that ensure the quality of seed, industry experts say. The Cambodian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI), under the direction of the Ministry ...

Cambodian export values increased more than 21 per cent in the first quarter of this year compared with the same period last year, and officials said the rise was a positive sign for the Kingdom’s economic growth. According to the Ministry of Commerce’s export data ...

Thailand will forge closer ties with Cambodia and other neighbouring countries to increase competency in rice trading and boost the bargaining power of Asean countries by setting up a rice-trading zone soon. Also, Thailand will expand crop cooperation to cassava to raise farm incomes in the ...

A U.S.-based energy company has announced that it is planning a biomass project using genetically modified rice in Cambodia, in a purportedly massive deal about which little information has been made public. In a statement posted online Thursday, Sino Bioenergy Corp. said it had signed a ...

Cambodia’s first-ever agricultural census is under way, tasked with addressing the lack of reliable statistical information on one of  the Kingdom’s most crucial economic sectors. The census is being taken by the government with assistance from the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in two ...

An unusual report shows that organic rice buyers in the U.S. are getting a large percentage of their rice from Cambodia. The Cambodian Center for Study and Development in Agriculture (CEDAC) exported 114 tonnes of organic jasmine rice to the U.S. in the first quarter of ...

Just recently, the Philippines government signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) on rice trade with the Kingdom of Cambodia to pave the way for the National Food Authority (NFA) to import rice from that country for the next two years. The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) ...

Cambodia recorded a sharp rise in milled rice export in the first three months of 2012 thanks to increasing international market demand and more investment in post- harvest technologies, Prime Minister Hun Sen said Friday. A commerce report showed that the country exported 95,230 tons ...

Prior to 2013, Dom Dorn, a farmer in Phnom Sruoch district of Kampong Speu province, used oxen to farm his white-rice paddies; now, after just his second harvest of sowing phkarmalis (also known as jasmine or fragrant rice), he is using a kor yun, or ...

Mondolkiri and Kompong Thom provinces could suffer some of the most extreme effects of climate change in the Lower Mekong Basin region, such as a high incidence of flash floods and droughts by 2050, according to a new study. Analyzing temperature and rainfall from 84 provinces ...

The Can Tho city and Cambodian province of Battambang have signed a memorandum of understanding on economic co-operation that covers commerce, investment, and tourism. The two sides will create favourable conditions for businesses from the two localities to co-operate in areas like processing of farm produce, ...

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has raised its forecast of global paddy production in 2012 by about 1.5 million tonnes to 730 million tonnes (487 million tonnes, milled). The scaling up of production mainly concerned Asian countries, in particular Cambodia, ...

Cambodia could see less preferential economic treatment by Europe in coming years, as it graduates as a more developed country, the EU’s ambassador to Cambodia says. In an interview with VOA Khmer in Phnom Penh, Ambassador Jean-Francois Cautain said Cambodia currently enjoys tariff exemptions under a ...

A delegation from a Thai agricultural co-operative yesterday discussed means of improving agricultural products and market access with representatives of the Ministry of Commerce in Phnom Penh. Kamit Likhitvidhayavuth of the Thai co-operative said his team aimed to strengthen market access for Cambodian goods. No agreement ...

A week after British researchers released a study warning that the nation’s grasslands would soon be lost if drastic action was not taken to protect them, some agricultural experts have called for moderation, noting that the intensive rice cultivation blamed for the grasslands’ destruction is ...

The Department of Foreign Trade plans to set up a “rice trade zone” project in the East to process Cambodian rice for export to other countries. Tikhumporn Natvaratat, deputy director-general of the department, said his organisation plans to implement the project in Chanthaburi, Trat, Sa Kaeo ...