EU rice tariffs hurt Cambodia’s farmers
January 6, 2020
Dealers use EU tariffs to squeeze Cambodian farmers. The episode holds warnings for 2020 as EBA protections remain under threat.

Last January, the European Union (EU) introduced tariffs on Cambodia and Myanmar’s rice imports to protect rice producers within the bloc.

Buyers are using the tariffs and the reduced demand for rice in Europe to pay Cambodia’s rice farmers below market value for their harvest.

Following the tariff introductions, rice exports from the Kingdom to the EU fell by 30% in 2019. Buyers are using falling exports as an excuse to drive rice prices down.

Choeun Socheat, a rice farmer in Cambodia’s Battambang province, told VOA that rice prices are down to US$232 per ton, US$60 less than the previous year’s rate. “The dealers told us that the price is low because they are buying rice to keep at the rice mills, but not for exporting abroad.”

The numbers tell a different story

While EU rice imports are down, many of the losses have been offset by increased Chinese purchases.

This year, China pledged to increase the quantity of rice bought from Cambodian farmers. In 2018, Beijing agreed to import 300,000 tons of Cambodian rice. In 2019, it increased this figure to 400,000.

As a result, despite decreasing demand in Europe, Cambodia’s export volume endured in 2019. The Kingdom sold 620,106 tons of rice last year, a drop of barely 1% on 2018’s tally. Around 40% of the country’s rice went to the Chinese market. The total value of the Kingdom’s exports fell by 4.3% to US$501 million.

“We have to sell with the price dealers set,” Socheat said. But export figures indicate that Cambodian farmers are being manipulated by dealers looking to capitalise on their limited access to market information.

Cambodia’s rice farmers face an increasingly uncertain future. In addition to being at the mercy of predatory dealers, rising pesticide and fertilizer prices mean they need to make even more money to break even.

One farmer from Omal commune in Battambang estimated that he needed to fetch US$267 per ton to recover fertilizer costs.

Extreme weather patterns are deepening reliance on these expensive chemicals. Droughts, particularly in the country’s north, have left around 32% of farmers without access to water or irrigation facilities.

In December 2019, around 45,000 hectares of rice-growing paddies were affected by severe droughts. The government was able to provide assistance to farmers managing around 20,000 hectares; less than half of those that needed it.

A farmer in Pursat province described how he needed to invest an additional US$500 in equipment to pump water from a nearby irrigation canal to his 16-acre rice paddy. These increased overhead costs reduce farmers’ abilities to absorb the costs of a low yield.
https://www.aseantoday.com/2020/01/eu-r ... s-farmers/

8 Million Tons of Rainy Season Rice Production in 2019
AKP Phnom Penh, January 27, 2020 --

Some 7.9 million tons of rainy season paddy rice were harvested in 2019 while the milled rice export was amounted to 620,106 tons, a year-on-year decrease of about 1 percent.

Report from Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries shows that as of December last year, paddy rice was cultivated on an area of 2.5 million hectares with an average yield of 3.1 tons per hectare.

Cambodia’s milled rice were shipped to 59 countries by 89 rice-exporting companies last year.

China is the Kingdom’s biggest rice market purchasing 248,105 tons, followed by France and Gabon with 81,905 tons and 36,663 tons, respectively.

The dry season rice production, the report stated, were achieved at 528,136 hectares, equal to 114 percent of yearly plan.

By Chea Vannak
AKP

CEOCambodiaNews wrote: ↑Mon Dec 30, 2019 7:50 amCambodia is harvesting over 2 million ha of rice out of the total 2.7 million ha this year, with an output of over 3 tonnes per ha.

China gets 18 tons/ha

https://asia.nikkei.com/Economy/China-s ... -consumers

fazur wrote: ↑Mon Jan 27, 2020 6:50 pm

CEOCambodiaNews wrote: ↑Mon Dec 30, 2019 7:50 amCambodia is harvesting over 2 million ha of rice out of the total 2.7 million ha this year, with an output of over 3 tonnes per ha.

China gets 18 tons/ha

https://asia.nikkei.com/Economy/China-s ... -consumers

I did a quick search on rice yields per hectare and nowhere in the world do they get 18 tons p /hectare

I agree it's high but the Nikkei Asian Review is quite reputable in my experience

Duncan wrote: ↑Mon Jan 27, 2020 7:34 pm

fazur wrote: ↑Mon Jan 27, 2020 6:50 pm

CEOCambodiaNews wrote: ↑Mon Dec 30, 2019 7:50 amCambodia is harvesting over 2 million ha of rice out of the total 2.7 million ha this year, with an output of over 3 tonnes per ha.

China gets 18 tons/ha

https://asia.nikkei.com/Economy/China-s ... -consumers

I did a quick search on rice yields per hectare and nowhere in the world do they get 18 tons p /hectare

There are some experimental farms that get high yields, such as in the article fazur quoted.

Farmers here are reluctant to change.

Cambodia’s rice exports fall 15.39 percent in January
Cambodia shipped 50,450 tonnes of rice worth 39 million USD to foreign markets in January, a year-on-year decline of 15.39 percent, according to the Cambodia Rice Federation (CRF).
VNA Tuesday, February 11, 2020 09:31
Phnom Penh (VNA) – Cambodia shipped 50,450 tonnes of rice worth 39 million USD to foreign markets in January, a year-on-year decline of 15.39 percent, according to the Cambodia Rice Federation (CRF).

CRF secretary-general Lun Yeng said that exports to the European market, the largest importer of Cambodian rice, in the month fell 22 percent year on year to 5,269 tonnes since the EU Commission introduced safeguard measures last year on rice imports from the country.

However, Lun Yeng said rice exports to the European market are set to increase in the coming months, thanks to a drop in taxes on rice imports from 175 EUR (190.99 USD) per tonne last year to 150 EUR this year.

The EU continued to be the leading destination market for Cambodian rice last month, accounting for the lion’s share of 37 percent, while China held 30 percent of the market, ASEAN 11 percent and other countries 22 percent, according to the CRF report.

Last year, Cambodia produced some 7.9 million tonnes of rice, over 620,000 tonnes of which were set aside for export, falling 1 percent as compared to the amount in 2018./.
VNA
https://en.vietnamplus.vn/cambodias-ric ... 168440.vnp

Paddy Rice and White Rice Exports Banned Temporarily
AKP Phnom Penh, March 30, 2020 --

Exports of white rice and paddy rice are banned temporarily in a period of hard time of COVID-19 pandemic, a move to ensure sustainable rice supply in the country.

The ban of the commodity exports will come into effect from April 5 until further notice, said Samdech Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo HE, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia, at a press conference here this morning after an extraordinary session of the National Assembly.

“The decision is aimed to keep milled rice for domestic supply and consumption,” Samdech Techo HE said.

However, the export of fragrant rice is not included in the ban.

Samdech Techo HE explained that the fragrant rice has good price on international markets and it is not as popular as the white rice among Cambodian people.

Cambodia exported 620,106 tons of rice last year to 59 countries by 89 rice-exporting companies.

By Lim Nary
https://www.akp.gov.kh/post/detail/28845

Upward Trend for Cambodian Rice Exports in 2020
2 May 2020

White Rice Export Ban Lifted
AKP Phnom Penh, May 13, 2020 --

Temporary ban of exporting white rice to foreign markets has been removed and the export will be resumed next week.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, H.E. Aun Pornmoniroth, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance said that the resumption of white rice export was made at the request of the Cambodia Rice Federation (CRF).

“I would like to inform Oknha the President of CRF that at the request of CRF, the Royal Government of Cambodia has decided to authorise the resumption of export of white rice to foreign markets from May 20, 2020 onward," he said.
- AKP