Cambodia Rice: World Rice Exports to Shrink While India and Pakistan Grab Market Share, Says IGC

Cambodia Rice: World Rice Exports to Shrink While India and Pakistan Grab Market Share, Says IGC

The International Grains Council (IGC) forecasts 2012 rice exports from India and Pakistan will grow significantly even as the total global rice exports will decline by about 7.62% from 34.1 million tons in 2010-11 to 31.5 million tons in 2011-12, a steeper decline than that predicted by the USDA and FAO.

In its latest Grain report, the IGC said that India’s rice exports will grow to around 5 million tons in 2012, an increase of around 32% year over year. Pakistan rice exports will also grow to around 3 million tons in 2012. According to the IGC, the two South Asian nations will dent the market share of other origins listed as the world’s top 5 rice exporters: Thailand, Vietnam and the U.S. Thailand will remain the top rice exporter, but Thai rice exports are expected to reduce from 10.5 million tons in 2010-11 to 7.2 million tons in 2011-12, a decrease of over 31%. Vietnam rice exports are also expected to decline from 7.1 million tons in 2010-11 to 6.5 million tons in 2011-12. Exports from the U.S. are estimated to decline from last year’s 3.5 million tons to 2.9 million tons this year.

The IGC attributes the reduction in rice exports to reduced demand form top rice importers in South East Asia. The Philippines is forecast to increase its rice imports from 1.2 million tons last year to 1.7 million tons in 2011-12, according to IGC figures. Indonesia’s rice imports are expected to reduce significantly from 2.6 million tons of rice in 2010-11 to 0.9 million tons in 2011-12, a decline of nearly 65%. In 2012, Bangladesh is expected to halve its rice requirements form 1.4 million tons last year to around 0.7 million tons in 2011-12. The IGC said, “World trade in calendar 2012 is forecast to contract sharply, by 8%, to 31.5 million tons, owing to significantly reduced shipments to markets in Far East Asia.”

The IGC report also said that global rice output will grow up by 2% to around 459 million tons and the year will end in a surplus of around 98.1 million tons of rice, which is the highest in nine years.

Recently, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) had estimated in its outlook for 2012 rice exports that weakening demand from Asian importing nations, which have a comfortable domestic supply, will cause a small decline from 34.3 million tons in 2011 to 33.8 million tons in 2012. FAO said the shortfall in exports will stem from Thailand’s being made uncompetitive due to its rice pledging scheme. The FAO has predicted, “Much of the shortfall in Thai deliveries is likely to be met by larger shipments from India, following the lifting of export restrictions. Australia, China, Pakistan and Vietnam are also foreseen to raise exports next year, while Argentina, Brazil, Myanmar, the United States and Uruguay may witness a contraction.” The USDA is forecasting a decline of world rice exports to about 31.8 million tons. Source:Oryza

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Cambodia Rice: No word on Philippines rice deal, exporter says

Cambodia Rice: No word on Philippines rice deal, exporter says

Green Trade, a state-owned, milled-rice exporter, had not been updated on a government-to-government rice deal with the Philippines despite recent media reports that claimed a deal was near.

Although a proposal for exports to the Southeast Asian neighbour had been made, Thon Virak, director of Green Trade, said yesterday:

“So far, there is no progress on the deal. We got the proposal from them a long time ago, but it’s been very quiet. I don’t know for sure when we can reach the agreement.”

He added that the Philippines expressed interest in importing about 200,000 tonnes of milled rice last year. Indonesian media reports claimed the two countries were close to signing a deal for 120,000 tonnes of milled rice. In mid-March, rice exporter Mega Green Imex Cambodia reported it had received 50,000 tonnes in orders from the Philippines. Source: PPPost

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Cambodia Rice: Greater Mekong Development Plan Agreed

Cambodia Rice: Greater Mekong Development Plan Agreed

TOKYO - Leaders of the six nations that share the Mekong River have agreed on a 10-year plan to boost growth, promote development and reduce poverty in the region comprising Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Viet Nam, and China's Yunnan and Guangxi regions.

The decision was taken at the fourth Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) Summit in Manila, the Philippines. In a joint declaration, GMS leaders endorsed a strategic framework for 2012 to 2022 that calls for a range of new measures to strengthen regional cooperation, including more effective resource utilization and more careful balancing of development with environmental concerns.

GMS is a natural economic area bound together by the Mekong River, covering 2.6 million square kilometers and a combined population of around 326 million.

"The new Strategic Framework for 2012-2022 will move the GMS to the next level through multisector investment projects, policy development, and inter-sector coordination," said Asian Development Bank (ADB) President Haruhiko Kuroda.
GMS leaders also endorsed strategies to enhance agricultural development, including food safety and security; accelerate the development and implementation of the pro-poor sustainable tourism industry, with the creation of multi-country tour packages to help spread revenues more widely; and promote low-carbon development and enhance management of the sub-region's richly diverse ecosystems, the ADB informed on December 20, 2012.

The significance of the GMS Summit lies in that in countries of the region increasingly, modernization and industrialization are emerging from a process of transition and transformation. The Mekong countries are gradually shifting from subsistence farming to more diversified economies, and to more open, market-based systems.

In parallel with this are the growing commercial relations among the six Mekong countries, notably in terms of cross-border trade, investment, and labor mobility. Moreover, natural resources, particularly hydropower, are beginning to be developed and utilized on a subregional basis.

The rich human and natural resource endowments of the Mekong region have made it a new frontier of Asian economic growth. Indeed, the Mekong region has the potential to be one of the world's fastest growing areas.

Two days after the conclusion of the Summit, ADB said it will provide a $3 million grant to support emergency relief efforts in the aftermath of tropical storm Sendong, also known internationally as Washi, which recently struck the southern Philippines.

ADB assistance will be channeled through the Government of the Philippines to provide clean water, health services, medical supplies and other essential emergency items to the affected households.

"As a development partner of the Philippines, we are extending immediate help to poor families that have borne disproportionate impact of the disaster during this festive season," said Neeraj Jain, ADB's Country Director for the Philippines.

ADB has also assured the Government of the Philippines of its continued support during the subsequent reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts, including effective early warning systems and measures that would reduce the risk of future disasters.

The $3 million grant is being provided under ADB's emergency facility, the Asia Pacific Disaster Response Fund, which provides quick-disbursing grants to help restore essential life-saving services following major natural disasters.

Since its inception in 1992, the GMS program has helped bring an area once divided by conflict increasingly together with investments of about $14 billion in projects with broad subregional benefits, including roads, airports and railways; telecommunications; energy; urban development; tourism; environmental protection; and the prevention of communicable diseases.

Since the start of the economic cooperation program, gross domestic product growth in the subregion has averaged about 8% a year, while real per capita incomes more than tripled between 1993 and 2010. As of September 2011, ADB assistance for the program totaled about $5 billion.

In 1992, with assistance from ADB, the six GMS countries entered into a program of subregional economic cooperation, designed to enhance economic relations among the countries.

With support from ADB and other donors, the GMS Program helps the implementation of high priority subregional projects in transport, energy, telecommunications, environment, human resource development, tourism, trade, private sector investment, and agriculture.

ADB says that substantial progress has been achieved in terms of implementing GMS projects since 1992. Priority infrastructure projects worth around US$10 billion have either been completed or are being implemented.

Among these are the upgrading of the Phnom Penh (Cambodia)-Ho Chi Minh City (Viet Nam) highway and the East-West Economic Corridor that will eventually extend from the Andaman Sea to Da Nang.

The subregion embraces flora and fauna that have expanded northward along the Malay Peninsula into Thailand, encroached upon the high mountains from the Himalayas, or advanced along the broad river valleys as dry deciduous forests similar to those of India.

Ten million years of changing sea levels have left a rich legacy of unique life forms that have evolved in isolation on the Cardamom and Annamite mountains of Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand, and Viet Nam.

These resources provide both income and sustenance to the great majority of people in the subregion who are leading subsistence or near subsistence agricultural lifestyles. The land yields timber, minerals, coal, and petroleum, while water from the many rivers supports agriculture and fisheries and provides energy in the form of hydropower.

The coal reserves of the subregion are abundant, and the oil and gas reserves considerable. Most of these are in Myanmar, Thailand and Viet Nam. These abundant energy resources are still relatively underused. Source: Global Perspectives

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Cambodia Rice: Cambodia's Rice Export Scheme Sees Good Omen with Chinese Investments

Cambodia Rice: Cambodia's Rice Export Scheme Sees Good Omen with Chinese Investments

(CambodiaRice:2011): PHNOM PENH, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia has seen a positive sign towards achieving its self-imposed target of one million-ton- rice exports by 2015 as the sector has been attracting a number of large investments from China.

In last August, the government launched the rice export policy in a bid to boost the exports of one million tons of milled rice by 2015.

"The main challenges to achieve this target are the shortages of sophisticated post-harvest technologies and capital to buy rice paddy from farmers," Kong Putheara, director of the Commerce Ministry's Planning and Statistics Department, told Xinhua in an interview on Friday.

However, the issues have gradually been broken through as a number of large Chinese firms have signed up to build a hi-tech rice processing plant and to purchase Cambodian rice for Chinese market.

Among those firms is the China Grain Reserves Corporation ( Sinograin) Guangzhou Branch.

The firm signed up on Aug. 16 to buy up to 200,000 tons of milled rice per year from Cambodia and has put its initial investment of 20 million U.S. dollars with a local T.T.Y Corporation to buy rice paddy from farmers to process for the exports to China.

And the China's Yunnan Overseas Investment Co., Ltd. signed a Memorandum of Understanding with a local Soma Group of Cambodia to build a high-tech rice processing plant to process rice for China.

Source: Xinhua

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Cambodia Rice: Association Warns of $720m Rice Loan Need

Cambodia Rice: Association Warns of $720m Rice Loan Need

(CambodiaRice:2010): CAMBODIA’S Small and Medium Industries Association warned that domestic rice millers require US$720 million in loans this harvest season, or they
risk being out-competed by foreign merchants.

“We cannot compete with buyers from Thailand and Vietnam to buy grain if local rice mills can’t receive more capital from the government or private banks,” said the association’s secretary general Ut Ren.

Cambodia has about 100 millers, which purchase paddy from farmers, process the rice and sell it to dealers.

If the millers are able to borrow short-term funds, they can purchase more paddy and sell more processed rice.

A typical Cambodian rice mill can process between 2 and 6 tonnes of rice per hour, said Ut Ren, and generally possess capital of between $50,000 to $70,000 to buy paddy during the harvest season.

Sur Kheang, president of the Kampong Cham provincial rice millers’ association,
said its 35 members were clamouring for more capital to purchase paddy. He said his association required an additional $2 million to add to its present capital of $390,000 to fund its lending to millers this harvest season.

“A call for extra funding for rice mills is a very good idea. Many of our rice mills are facing a lack of capital to buy rice,” he told The Post.

Schemes are underway to increase agricultural loans to millers.

The government has prepared to lend $36 million to the state-run Rural Development Bank in order to lend to rice millers, with a focus on those firms with
capacity for exports, according to its director general Sun Kunthor.

Some banks are also increasing their loan portfolio in the field.

In Channy, chief executive officer of ACLEDA Bank – the Kingdom’s largest agricultural lender – said the bank had lent $112 million to develop rice production from the start of the year to the end of November, a stark increase on its loans of $78 million made to the sector last year.

“We are not afraid to grant loans for buying rice, since we see there are now modern rice processing machines in Cambodia, and also increased orders from overseas,” he said.

The Kingdom’s updated rice policy aims to ramp up exports of milled rice.Cambodia’s stated aim is to hit 1 million tonnes in rice exports by 2015.

Local firms are also looking to export to new markets, with Golden Rice targeting 50,000 tonnes of rice to Europe, the United States and Asia in the next year.

Source: Phnom Penh Post

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