Associations, said on Thursday that his group also plans to tap new
markets, including the Philippines, as he expressed interest to
participate in the Philippine tender on November 4.
Mr. Ny said Ambassador Noe Wong and his staff at the Philippine Embassy
in Phnom Penh recently toured the facilities of Baitang (Kampuchea) Plc.
(Cambodia Green Plc), which operates the first and biggest rice milling
plant in Cambodia. The plant has the capacity to produce 720 metric tons
a day, Mr. Ny added.
Cambodia presently produces around eight million metric tons of paddy
rice, only half of which is for domestic consumption. The other half,
which translates to about 3 million MT of milled rice, is exported to
Germany, France, Malaysia and other countries.
The target is to more than double exports to 8 million MT of milled rice
by 2015, Mr. Ny said.
"Cambodia has great potential to be a major player (in the rice market).
We can compete in terms of quality and quantity," Mr. Ny said.
To increase production, Mr. Ny said they will cultivate more lands for
rice, increase the cropping periods, improve farming techniques and
upgrade rice mills.
The government had provided the federation a loan, part of which was
used to held upgrade milling equipment throughout the country.
"Now, 15% of our mills are ready to export. They are expected to start
exporting in 2010," Mr. Ny told delegates to the World Rice Conference
here that ended Thursday.
The rest of the mills will continue to cater to domestic requirements
while upgrading their equipment.
Cambodia presently has 2.6 million hectares of ricelands. "We have a
very big land area. We can increase our irrigated lands," Mr. Ny said.
Other emerging rice exporters are Myanmar, which targets to export 1
million MT next year; and Uruguay, whose paddy exports may reach 1.25
million MT, or about 800,000 MT of milled rice.
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