Cambodia plans to resumes rice exports

Prime Minister Hun Sen said there was no rice shortage in Cambodia and that the ban, imposed March 26 to ensure a stable supply of the country's staple food, had helped stabilize domestic prices.

Beginning Tuesday, rice exports can be resumed for some 1 million tons of milled rice Cambodia has in excess of its needs for domestic consumption, he said.

Cambodia produced a surplus of nearly 1.6 million tons of milled rice from last year's farming season, he said. But he added that exports must not exceed the total amount of surplus until the new harvesting season begins in December.

Hun Sen said that more than 500,000 tons had already been exported before he imposed the two-month ban.

The export ban primarily stopped rice from flowing to neighboring Thailand and Vietnam. Since the end of the harvest early this year, Cambodian farmers living in provinces bordering the two countries have been selling rice in large quantities across the borders, attracted by high prices.

In Phnom Penh markets over the weekend, a kilo of low-grade rice was selling for between 1,800 riel (45 cents) and 2,000 riel (50 cents), little changed from before when the ban was imposed. Earlier this year, rice of this quality cost about 1,300 riel (30 cents) a kilo.

Cambodia is a minor rice exporter, shipping about 450,000 tons of milled rice last year, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture estimate. Neighboring Thailand exported 8.5 million tons, it said.

Hun Sen's government has also advocated creation of a cartel of rice-exporting countries with Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. But the idea appeared stalled after Thailand dropped out.