Cambodia Rice News: Cambodia will not export rice to Philippines

Cambodia will not export rice to Philippines

After the Philippines government issued their own policy regarding milled rice exports the Ministry of Commerce of Cambodia has expressed its disinterest in exporting milled rice to its neighbour, Cambodia’s Commerce Minister said yesterday.

Local rice millers will not be encouraged to make any efforts to export milled rice to the Philippines, said Cham Prasidh, the Minister of Commerce for Cambodia.

“We have no interest in the Philippines market any more as their government has issued a new policy that by 2013 the country should be able meet its own supply requirements for milled rice and may even export some starting next year. We do not need to rely on the Philippines — there are other markets”, he said during a meeting at the National Assembly yesterday.

At the same time, Cham Prasidh urged members of the Federation of Cambodian Associations of Rice Exporters to look other markets in the region.

“Now, we will look at Indonesia even though they are producing a lot of milled rice. There could still be a shortage. I plan on signing a memorandum of understanding with the Indonesian trade minister next month during the ASEAN Economic Ministers’ meeting.”

The deal will be for 100,000 tonnes of milled rice, according to Chairman of the Federation of Cambodian Associations of Rice Exporters Kim Savuth, who agreed with Cham Psaidh’s claims and said the Philippines market is a bit difficult for private rice milling companies to work in.

“Of course, I think it is good idea because we should not waste time and we won’t have to now that their government has announced that they can produce enough milled rice to meet their own demand by 2013,” he said.

He said he had conducted an export feasibility study on the market since 2000 and that Cambodia was close to exporting milled rice to the Philippines though for it to happen a bilateral agreement needed to be made between the two governments.

“We were very close to exporting to the Philippines over the last few years but after we saw the conditions for payment, which were quite late, we decided to look for other markets to enter,” he said.

Kim Savuth said that Indonesia, Malaysia and China, among others in the region, have a lot of potential with Cambodia’s white rice, while the European and Russian markets are still good places for fragrant rice exports.

Cambodia’s total exports of milled rice dropped about 35 per cent for the first half of 2012 to 78,000 tonnes compared to 120,000 tonnes for the same period in 2011– a decrease of 40,000 tonnes, according to data from the Ministry of Agriculture supplied yesterday.

Source: Phnompenhpost/18July2012

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Cambodia Rice News: $20 million rice mill for Oddong

$20 million rice mill for Oddong

When London-based real estate investor Sanjay Dhir heard about Cambodia from his Indian partner Manoj Varma, he took a trip here in October 2010 and stopped by the roadside to meet the operators of a portable rice mill.

He knew then that Cambodia was ready for new rice mills. After working with his partners for the last year and a half, Long Grain Co Ltd announced the deal last week for a $20 million investment in a new rice mill in the Oddong district, about 40 kilometres from Phnom Penh.

“When you have been through many crises in various countries, trends and fashion changes, you learn one thing: people have got to eat,” Dhir said. “On the remaining two and a half hour journey after talking to the owners of the portable rice mill I was trying to understand more about the country, the rice, how many mills and very quickly realised there was a huge opportunity for many, many more rice mills,” he said.

According to the same principles that he and his partner Manoj Varma use when investing in real estate developments in India through a company called Fusion Real Estate Investments of Mauritius, the key is finding good local partners to work with.

In this case, they found Sean Ngu, CEO of EMAXX Telecom, who is one of several shareholders in Long Grain Fusion, the Singapore company that owns the Cambodian company Long Grain Co Ltd. Dhir serves as the Chairman of Long Grain Fusion: the majority shareholder is his own family.

In the $20 million phase one of the project, Japanese rice milling equipment under the brand name Satake will arrive in October, following completion of the building at the end of September for a projected start of operations on January 25 next year, on Dhir’s 40th birthday.

“There’s been an awful lot to do, identifying the site, filling the site, raising it by two metres, and working with a good builder for excavation and foundations,” Dhir said.

With regard to the January opening of the plant, Dhir says the paddy can be acquired and stored prior to milling....Read more at Phnompenhpost

Source: Phnompenhpost/17July2012

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Cambodia Rice News: Rice millers to increase capital

Rice millers to increase capital

Cambodian rice millers will increase their capital to purchase unmilled rice this season as bankers agreed to provide more loans, insiders said on Monday.

Baitong will increase its capital to purchase up to 140,000 tonnes of fragrant unmilled rice, compared to last year’s 70,000 tonnes said Phou Puy, president of the Federation of Rice Millers Associations and the Baitong Rice Export Company.

Working capital would increase from US$28 million to $50 million this year as fragrant unmilled rice cost $450 per tonne, an increase from $400 per tonne he said.

Acleda Bank will increase loans for the agricultural sector to $200 million, with a total of $1.35 billion over the next year, an increase of $50 million from the year before, In Channy, CEO and president of Acleda Bank, said.

“We have increased loans for this sector because of the royal government’s policies and in order to support this sector,” he said.

“There is no lack of capital, but the most important thing is that rice millers have to have specific financial statements in order for the bank’s officials to grant loans.

“Outside markets are getting bigger and bigger and we have more partners and more orders. We know there are increases in demand, so we have to be prepared,” he said.

The Loran import-export company, which has rice milling operations in Battambang and Kandal provinces, has agreed to buy at least 120,000 tonnes of fragrant unmilled rice after last year when Loran was able to buy only 20,000 tonnes of unmilled rice for processing, President Lim Bunheng said.

Source: Phnompenhpost/28June2012

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Cambodia Rice News: Cambodian rice millers seek to expand trade with EU

Cambodian rice millers seek to expand trade with EU

Cambodian rice millers have pledged to work harder to improve the capacity of their industry as they seek to expand to European Union market. They made the comments at a recent seminar held to discuss findings of the mission they had to five EU countries in September.

“We are determined to make Cambodia become a good partner in supplying rice to the EU market,” Mr. Thon Virak, Director General of Cambodian Green Trade Company, said at a workshop on 1st October.

More than 150 people from government institutions, private sector, and development partners attended the workshop which was held at Ministry of Commerce following a trade mission to Belgium, France, Netherlands, Germany and Poland on 12-24 September. The ministry’s representatives led the delegation of nine rice millers, one representative from a logistics company, one service provider from Small and Medium Industry Association of Cambodia (SMI Cambodia), and four government officials to explore opportunity for rice export to the EU.

The visit aimed to assist Cambodian rice millers in developing trading partnerships and gaining first-hand information about the rice milling technologies, qualities, and standards needed to enter the EU market.

During the visit they met with rice brokers, traders, processors and distributors. They also held talks with the Directorate General of Agriculture of the European Commission and a federation of European rice traders.

“Before the visit, we had not really an idea of what the market requires. Now, after seeing it with our own eyes and talking directly to the buyers, we know what the EU consumers want,” Norng Veasna, a rice miller from Kampong Cham, said.

Cambodia is among the least-developed countries that can benefit from tariff-free imports allowed by the EU under its Everything-but-Arms initiative. The delegation members said there was a strong interest among the European buyers in Cambodian rice. But they also took note of the high requirements on the quality standards of sanitation and food safety of the EU consumers.

“There are good potentials for Cambodian rice to access the EU market, but quality requirements are quite strict. This is the main challenge for our rice producers to address,” said Mr. Renne Outh, Secretary General of SMI Cambodia.

Last year, Cambodia exported 21,600 tons of milled rice to Europe, trailing behind its neighbours Thailand and Viet Nam. To become more competitive in quality and quantity, Cambodia needs to invest more in modernizing processing technology and improve trade facilitation by reducing cost of doing business, officials said at the workshop.

“The core factors for doing business with Europe are high quality of rice, trust and reliability which includes regularity of quantity supply and ability to meet delivery schedule,” Mr. Thon Virak said.

He added that early next year representatives of European buyers will visit Cambodia to sign a contract of 40,000 tonnes of milled rice annually – an amount almost twice as much the total country’s export to Europe in 2009.

The rice miller mission was proposed by the Trade Promotion Department (TPD) of MoC and prepared in close cooperation with the Rice Task Team under the Trade Sector-Wide Approach (Trade SWAp). Development partners Agence Francaise Developpement (AFD) and UNDP provided funding for the mission. Technical assistance before and during the visit to Europe was provided by German Technical Cooperation (GTZ).

Speaking on behalf of UNDP, Ms. Norng Ratana, a programme analyst on trade, said the harmonization among donors and public and private sectors is necessary to forge strategy for doing rice business with the EU.

“We can develop a good plan and set target to increase rice export, but without involvement of the private sector, it will be very difficult to implement such a plan. Private sector can be the producers, collectors, and distributors. They can also serve as the link between the buyers and farmers,” she said at the workshop.

Source: UN/12-October-2010

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