Investment Needed to Reach Rice Export Target
Cambodia exported just 78,000 tons of milled rice through the first eight months of 2012, and if the government is to reach its target of exporting 1 million tons each year by 2015 the agriculture sector needs more access to financing, participants at the Cambodian Rice Forum in Phnom Penh said yesterday. … Chhim Phallyboth, program coordinator at the Cambodian Organic Agriculture Association, said that it is not just the millers who need help, but also the farmers themselves, who are mostly subsistent and use primitive rain-fed techniques to harvest mostly low-grade rice. … …[E]xperts have said that only about 40 of Cambodia’s more than 200 rice mills are able to produce processed rice that is fit for the international markets. Cambodia also does not have the means to store large amounts of raw grain for processing. …
