Cambodia Fragrant Rice Exports to EU Threatened by Rogue Traders

[geovalin]

By John Le Fevre

Cambodia fragrant rice exports to the European Union (EU) are in jeopardy due to cheating by rogue exporters mixing lower quality grains with the country’s premium product.

At the recent 9th EU-Cambodia Joint Committee meeting in Phnom Penh Cambodia was again warned that mixed milled rice will be an obstacle for its rice to be sold on the EU market, putting at risk about 40 per cent or some 215,000 tons of the 538,000 tons of rice Cambodia exported last year.

Currently Cambodia enjoys duty- and quota-free trade preferences under the Everything But Arms (EBA) agreement and last May when the matter of rice mixing was raised by the EU, Cambodia’s Ministry of Commerce (MoC) warned growers and exporters that the continuation of the practice could see this status revoked.

In a letter the ministry said: “Recently, the EU has increased monitoring of rice imports to investigate the origins of rice imported, with the aim to pause or ban the import of rice without clear origins.”

The ministry threatened it would stop issuing Certificates of Origin to exporters found to be using non-Cambodian rice and also said teams of inspectors would launch surprise raids on rice exporting companies and rice millers to investigate the issue, while Cambodia rice industry associations blamed the practice on “one or two” rogue companies – the same explanation offered this year – suggesting that the issue was blown out of proportion.

That the matter has again been raised by the EU indicates that the problem is far from remedied, perhaps indicating that much like with Thailand and its non-compliance with illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing regulations, the EU is getting tired of its messages falling on deaf ears. The matter of mixed rice grains was first raised in 2013 when the EU Trade Commissioner said as much as 30 per cent of some 196,000 tons of rice exported by Cambodia to EU members was rice of Vietnam origin mixed with Cambodia rice.

Cambodia Largest Rice Supplier to EU

Read more: Cambodia Fragrant Rice Exports to EU Threatened by Rogue Traders http://aecnewstoday.com/2016/cambodia-fragrant-rice-exports-eu-threatened-rogue-traders/#ixzz49WnXuRS6
Please copy and share within the spirit of fair use. We protect our copyrights. Citation link required back to source material.
Follow us: @aecnewstoday on Twitter

[Ulic]

Sounds like they are just getting some of their rice back from Thailand after a few years in storage.

[allan michaud]

These people are idiots, like so many in the region they think everyone else is stupid and will not find out. Same goes for Thailand who have done this to numerous countries over the years (mixing old with new). Dumb beyond belief. The trouble is the people doing it are almost certainly well connected so they feel protected. I will laugh if they are stupid enough to do it again.