Cambodia's Rice Exports Up 94 Per Cent In 11 Months

PHNOM PENH, Dec 12 (Bernama) -- Cambodia exported 332,000 tonnes of rice in the first 11 months of the year, up 94 per cent year-on-year.

The country exported rice to 63 countries and territories with Poland, France, Malaysia, Thailand, the Netherlands and China as its main importers, Vietnam News Agency (VNA) reports Xinhua News Agency as saying.

Hean Vanhorn, director of the single window secretariat for facilitating milled rice exports, said Cambodia has broadened its overseas markets for rice.

"This is a golden opportunity for local farmers, producers and exporters to increase rice production and quality to meet demand in international markets," he said.

Late last month, Cambodian fragrant rice was awarded the world's best rice for the second year at a global rice tasting competition in China's Hong Kong.

With more than 80 per cent of the population being farmers, Cambodia produced 9.31 million tonnes of paddy rice in 2012.

Besides for local consumption, the country has about 3 million tonnes of milled rice left over for exports this year.

Cambodia aims to export 1 million tonnes of milled rice annually from 2015.

Last year, the country exported 187,115 tonnes of milled rice worth US$132 million.

-- BERNAMA

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