Kampong Thom – Hun Samnang, a rice farmer, has to pay off his loan in a few months.
But he fears that he will not be able to meet the payments from this year’s harvest due to plummeting grain prices caused by the imposition of tariffs by the European Union, imposed over protectionist concerns.
Rice prices at market have decreased by about 12.5 percent since the EU announced the tariffs earlier this month.
“If the price keeps the same or goes lower than that, I will lose,” the 39-year-old farmer told VOA Khmer at his paddy field in Kampong Thom’s Srayov commune.
