Iran’s government has floated the idea of importing seeds to grow rice in Cambodia and exporting the harvested grain back to Iran, according to a Cambodian official who met Wednesday with Iranian Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Ebrahim Rahimpour.
Long Visalo, a Foreign Affairs Ministry secretary of state, said that Mr. Rahimpour raised the proposal during a meeting at the Foreign Affairs Ministry in Phnom Penh.
“[Iran] wanted to buy milled rice from us, but our milled rice is not the milled rice that they need,” Mr. Visalo explained.
“If they can, they want to come to grow rice in Cambodia to produce it as Basmati rice to transport to their country. We will consider this,” he said.
Mr. Visalo added that the Iranian Chamber of Commerce is also planning a trip to Cambodia this year to study the possibility of growing rice here.
“I will sign two documents with [Mr. Rahimpour],” Mr. Visalo added.
“One document about the result of this meeting and the other document about the cooperation of our cultures.”
