Cambodia Plans to Ask China to Increase Milled Rice Quota to 600K Tons

Cambodia Plans to Ask China to Increase Milled Rice Quota to 600K Tons

Cambodia plans to ask China to increase its quota on milled rice imports from Cambodia to 500,000 tonnes , 100,000 tonnes more than the existing allowance.

The Ministry of Commerce (MoC) said it plans to negotiate the issue with its Chinese counterparts this year. China is the country’s biggest market for the Kingdom’s milled rice exports.

Lun Yeng, secretary-general of Cambodia Rice Federation (CRF), said: “We need wider markets for milled rice exports. A quota increase from China, which is our biggest market, will be a good move,” Yeng told Khmer Times yesterday.

The timeframe for the negotiations depends on the ministry, he added.

Cambodia’s rice exports in the first quarter of this year reached 153,688 tonnes, generating $109.73 million.

Figures from the CRF show rice exports in 2021 gradually recovering, resulting in an increase of 84.66 percent in March compared with February, from 41,949 tonnes to 77,466 tonnes. February’s figures compared with January’s increased by only 22 percent.

Cambodia’s milled rice is exported to 41 countries around the world, with China the biggest market, taking 55.55 percent, followed by 19 countries in Europe and three countries in ASEAN (Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines).

The first quarter of 2021 was the year with the lowest exports in the last five years for the same period, reported the CRF. It said the main reason for the delay was problems with delivery to overseas buyers, especially to target countries in the European Union, caused by a shortage of containers for rice exports and by the cost of shipping rising up to five times. Khmer Times