Cambodia still exports rice while other countries pass restrictions

By Im Sokthy | Published on May 1, 2008

PHNOM PENH – Rice prices are high across the globe and most Asian countries are having difficulties finding ways to lower the prices. The increased cost raises concerns over food security and unexpected social unrest, such as demonstrations and food riots.

Therefore, each nation is attempting to buy more rice from foreign countries or is introducing measures to curb its rice exports. For example, Indonesia’s government has taken measures to cut the export of rice made by private traders and allow only government agencies to handle exportation. However, according to the Cambodian Prime Minster, Cambodia is exporting about 6,000 tons of rice in the meantime.

Cambodia is an agricultural country and about 85 percent of its population is farmers, who cultivate rice paddies as a staple stock. Based on this, Cambodian farmers would be less likely to face problems of food security. However, they more or less run into the problem of high food commodity prices, including rice.

Newspaper and radio reports in Cambodia’s provinces of complaints about high food prices indicate that the increase in price, a so-called inflation, really affects the living conditions of the people, especially those who have less income. Notably, political parties have raised the issue as an important item on the agenda of their parties’ platform. Some parties have begun conducting public forums to discuss inflation and others have organized demonstrations to express their ideas against the high prices.

Though this is a reality in today’s Cambodian society, the country still affirms that it has not been confronted with a shortage of rice and would like to contribute to helping those who do lack rice. Broken rice has been exported to Senegal and recently the government announced an export of sixty tons of rice. Cambodia claims that even this is a small amount of rice, but it is one way in which Cambodia can contribute to easing the world food shortage.

That is an opportunity for Cambodia to market its rice products to the world. Also, the United Nations and World Bank have called on countries to not restrict food exports as this may further increase food prices and make problems worse.

What is important to note is that Cambodia is optimistic and ambitious regarding the rice issue. In recent days, the Prime Minister of Cambodia, Samdech Akka Mahasena Padei Decho Hun Sen, confirmed during his closing remarks at the Government and Private sector meeting, which has been conducted twice a year since 1999, that Cambodia will be able to export about 8 million tons of rice per year by 2015. At the present time, the country is exporting about 2-3 million tons of rice to foreign countries and its rice yield is not yet fully utilized.

Cambodia has about two million hectares of land for rice fields used to produce rice with its existing irrigation system, which can cover about 30 percent of the land. The system can expand to three million hectares for rice production. Doing so would allow Cambodia to cultivate roughly two to three times per year on the same area of land. Based on this, it I would seem that Cambodia has a lot of potential for rice production and could become the world’s largest exporter of rice.