Cambodia's private sector exports of milled rice expected to rise 10 folds in 2009

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia may see a 10-fold increase in private sector milled rice exports this year, up to 200,000 tons from 20,000 tons in 2008, due to greater milling capacity and emergence of new markets, national media said on Monday.

The rise would come despite higher government stock requirement, English-language daily newspaper the Phnom Penh quoted the Federation of Cambodian Rice Miller Associations (FCRMA), as saying.

The private sector is required to maintain minimum stocks of 500,000 tons in 2009, up from 400,000 tons in 2008, it said.

About 300,000 tons have already been collected from the latest harvest, and the industry is using 15 million U.S. dollars of low-interest bank loans to enhance the capacity and quality of milling through upgrading infrastructure, said FCRMA president Phou Puy.

The industry has also expanded the overseas market and plans to export over 200,000 tons of rice to Germany, Malaysia, Brunei and Saudi Arabia, he added.

Among the countries beside the Mekong River, where rice plantation is popular, Cambodia only lags behind Thailand and Vietnam in the fields of rice exports.