Vietnam imports 1.4 mln tonnes of Cambodian rice paddy

The ministry said most of the exports came from the provinces of Kandal, Prey Veng, Svay Rieng, Takeo, Battambang and Kampot.

Minister of Agriculture Veng Sakhon told Khmer Times for the 2019-2020 harvest Cambodia produced 10.88 million tonnes of rice paddy with a surplus of 5.76 million tonnes.

“These figures show that we don’t want to stop exports to Vietnam, because our farmers will lack a market. Last season Cambodia was estimated to export more than 2 million tonnes of rice paddy to Vietnam,” he said.

Secretary-General of Cambodia Rice Federation (CRF) Lun Yeng said most of the rice paddy exported to Vietnam is short-time-growth rice that can take just three months to mature.

“Short-time-growing-rice is not our target for processing for export but we encourage farmers to export it because it helps farmers to generate more income and working capital,” he said.

Cambodia has more than 2.7 million hectares under rice cultivation. Floods in recent times have affected more than 213,000 hectares, with 32,000 hectares severely damaged. The natural disaster could reduce the amount of paddy exported to Vietnam, which often reaches more than 2 million tonnes a year.