柬埔寨去年共生产930万吨稻谷
Cambodia had produced 9.3 million tons of paddy rice in 2013, which was comparable to the amount in 2012, according to the report of the Ministry of Agriculture on Thursday.
"With this amount, besides local consumption, the country will have about 4.78 million tonnes of un-husked rice, or more than 3 million tonnes of milled rice, left over for exports this year," the report said.
Hean Vanhorn, director of the single window secretariat for facilitating milled rice exports, called on rice exporters to increase their exports in order to help the government to achieve its self-imposed goal of exporting one million tonnes of milled rice by 2015.
Currently, some 84 companies have been exporting rice to 66 countries and regions around the world, he said, adding that key buyers are France, Poland, Malaysia, the Netherlands and China.
The Southeast Asian nation had exported some 379,000 tonnes of milled rice last year, up 84 percent year-on-year.
Commerce Minister Sun Chanthol said Tuesday that the country was expected to achieve the target of exporting one million tonnes of milled rice by 2015 thanks to the government-private joint efforts and good quality of rice.
He said Cambodian fragrant rice was awarded the world's best rice for two consecutive years at the Global Rice Tasting Competitions held in Indonesia in 2012 and in Hong Kong, China in 2013.
Cambodia is an agrarian country with over 80 percent of the population being farmers. Agricultural sector accounted for 27.5 percent of GDP in 2012, according to the report of the Ministry of Agriculture.
