Agriculture & Food

Song Saran, chairman of the Cambodian Rice Federation, said that Cambodian rice exporters expect the increase in Chinese demand to make up for the decline in exports to Europe. Although the EU still hopes to import more rice from the country, high transportation costs and lack of containers make it difficult to ship rice to Europe. Therefore, the federation regards China as its main growth market, and its rice exports to the Chinese market still maintain good growth.

Saran said that the current federation has not forced its members to increase exports because they may suffer losses. He believes that exporters need to focus on maintaining stable long-term shipments. Saran said rice exports in the first six months of 2021 were lower than the same period last year. They are roughly the same as the first quarter of 2019, but higher than previous years.

Sin Chanthy, president of the Cambodia Logistics Association, said that rice is a heavy commodity and needs to be stored in short containers. Most of the containers currently available are long and cannot be used to transport rice over long distances.