Rice Sector Facing Collapse, Millers Warn

[geovalin]

Khmer Times/May Kunmakara

About half of the country’s rice millers and exporters went out of business last year and those clinging on are likely to follow suit within two years unless the government injects capital into the sector and takes measures to curb the flood of imported rice from Vietnam, millers and exporters said in a letter to the Commerce Ministry yesterday.

“The government may not know or understand the extent of the gravity of the situation facing the rice industry now and in the near future,” the letter from an “activist” group in the Cambodia Rice Federation said. “Nobody has given any concrete attention to the plight of millers and farmers,” it added before outlining risks the industry faces and solutions to avoid bankruptcy for millers and farmers.

The letter also referred to the rice federation as a “sinking ship,” and urged the Commerce Ministry to facilitate an extraordinary general meeting of the federation in order to change its charter and bylaws to salvage it.

read more: http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/22030/rice-sector-facing-collapse--millers-warn/