In the first four months this year, Cambodia exported 248,491 tonnes of rice worth $170.2 million, a report by the Cambodia Rice Federation (CRF) showed yesterday.
Cambodia gained $46.6 million from exporting 82,491 tonnes of rice in April alone, the report said. China was Cambodia’s largest rice importer as it purchased 67,457 tonnes of milled rice worth $42.28 million in the first four months.
In addition to this, the Kingdom exported 105,799 tonnes of milled rice to 26 countries in the European bloc, 57,766 tonnes to seven countries in the ASEAN region and 21,469 tonnes to other destinations, the report said.
Exported milled rice varieties included fragrant rice, long grain white rice, parboiled rice and organic rice, it said, citing that fragrant rice accounted for 73 percent of the total rice export.
Meanwhile, Cambodia exported 2.41 million tonnes of paddy rice worth $693 million to its neighbouring countries.
Each year, Cambodia produces more than 12 million tonnes of paddy rice or more than seven million tonnes of milled rice, which is about 50 percent more than the domestic demand, Yang Saing Koma, Secretary of State of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries, said.
“Our future goal is to ensure food security and sustainable economy and environment, besides supporting farmers,” he said.
“Cambodia’s rice sector is not only successful in producing food to ensure national food security, but it also contributes to global food security,” he added.
In the first four months of 2024, paddy rice and milled rice exports increased by more than 30 percent compared to the same period in 2023, according to Koma.
In 2015, Cambodia set a goal to export one million tonnes of milled rice to international markets, but even after almost a decade, this ambitious goal has not yet been achieved.
CRF has now set a goal to export at least a million tonnes of milled rice by 2025.
According to it, in the last four years, Cambodia’s rice exports to international markets have reached just over 600,000 tonnes per year, with 617,069 tonnes of export in 2021, 637,004 tonnes in 2022 and 656,423 tonnes in 2023.
(khmertimeskh)
