Cambodia's rice price lowest
The ADB’s study, released Tuesday and titled Improving Rice Production and Commercialization in Cambodia, states that Cambodia’s average rice yield ranks the lowest among almost all Southeast Asian nations.
Cambodian rice yields currently stand at 3.3 tonnes per hectare, according to the report, which took into account survey results from 750 households across 18 communes in Battambang, Kampong Thom and Takeo provinces.
Meanwhile, Vietnam produces around 6.2 tonnes per hectare, Indonesia produces about 5.7 tonnes, the Philippines 4.3 tonnes, Laos 4.1 tonnes, and Thailand 3.5 tonnes per hectare.
“Area cultivated by farm/farm size is [the] most important determinant of improved production and commercialization,” the report, which was presented in Phnom Penh by ADB country director Eric Sidgwick on Tuesday, states.
“In our meeting just last week with the private sector, the same issues have been raised. We cannot solve all the problems at once,” Hean Vann Horn, deputy director general of the General Directorate of Agriculture, said yesterday.
“But the government has been focusing on a more long term action plan, of which increasing rice production has been prioritised, followed by paddy collection and processing, simplified rice exporting processes and finally market planning,” Horn reasoned.
Horn said that the foremost challenge for the industry is the lack of capital for exporters to stock paddy rice. As a direct consequence, paddy flows to neighbouring countries more rapidly as farmers scramble for finances during the harvest.
According to the ADB report, 44 per cent of respondents said they had no access to irrigation systems. Meanwhile, only 14 per cent said they had access to high-yield rice seeds and only five per cent said they were aware of regional and even domestic market prices.
Srey Chanthy, independent economist, said the ADB report’s findings were not surprising and represent the same issues that have been plaguing Cambodia’s rice industry for almost two decades.
As election data trickled in on Sunday evening and a fear set in borne of uncertainty and a beefed-up police presence, demand for basic commodities surged, food prices briefly rose, and some banks saw an expected rise in withdrawals.
Sales of rice jumped from their normal volume on Sunday, shop owners said yesterday, and prices of noodles doubled amid an election climate that drove up costs of food staples.
Initial numbers showed that the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party took home 55 seats out of the 123 up for grabs in the National Assembly; the remaining 68 were swept up by the ruling Cambodian People’s Party in an election marred by allegations of names deleted from voter lists and other forms of disenfranchisement.
As reports of small-scale rioting and increased security poured in, lines formed at ACLEDA bank branches in the city on Sunday night, and some ATMs were emptied before being refilled yesterday.
The panic spread, and a handful of customers lined up were only doing so because they saw others taking money out and grew worried.
Cambodia’s rice harvest is forecast to reach 9.1 million tonnes this year, down from an estimated 9.3 million tonnes last year but up from 8.8 million tonnes in 2011, the Food and Agricultural Organization said Thursday.
The estimates were contained in the UN agency’s quarterly Crop Prospects and Food Situation report which showed global rice output expanding 1.9 percent to 500 million tonnes.
“In addition, production growth this season could be dampened by expectations of falling prices and recent policy changes that may encourage farmers to shift to other crops.”
Production of Cambodian organic rice is rising rapidly as international demand for the product increases, experts said at a forum for growers and other industry members held Tuesday at the Phnom Penh headquarters of agricultural NGO Cedac.
“In the first six months of this year we’ve exported about 200 tons of organic rice, which is about double last year’s figure,” said Cedac president Yang Saing Koma, adding that farmers aren’t producing enough to meet demand. “We hope that by next year, we’ll be exporting 1,500 tons annually.”
Although there are about 100,000 farmers who produce organic rice in Cambodia, only about 200 meet international standards, Mr. Saing Koma said.
Claudius Bredehoeft, national project coordinator for GIZ, the international development arm of the German government, said at the forum that Cambodian farmers are well-positioned to carve out a niche in the rice market.
“Since Thailand has introduced minimum rice prices, and Cambodia can export tax-free to the E.U., it has advantages Thailand and Vietnam do not,” he said. “With the fair trade and organic price premium, there are good market incentives to [continue to grow the rice industry].”
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a loan of $55 million to help transform the rice sector of Cambodia into a viable commercial industry as well as taking care of the land and water resources.
ADB’s Climate-Resilient Rice Commercialization Sector Development Program―which will run through to 2019―will help address regulatory obstacles, improve rice value chain infrastructure, and support services, while protecting agricultural land and raising its productivity, according to an ADB statement.
The loan will be given to fund projects in the provinces of Battambang, Kampong Thom and Prey Veng, the largest rice producing provinces in the country, to help farmers improve crop productivity and efficiency.
In addition to the ADB’s loans, ADB will also administer loans and grants of $9.5 million from the ADB’s Strategic Climate Fund and a $14.6 million grant from the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program. The Government of Cambodia will supply $8.3 million for a total program investment cost of $87.4 million, as reported by ADB.
