Cambodian rice millers are releasing their remaining stock of paddy rice into the market and are planning to request government loans to allow them to double their purchase of rice stocks during the 2008-2009 harvest, Cambodia Rice Millers Association President Phuo Puy said Monday.
The 50,000 tons had been kept stored until now by the rice millers in order to ensure Cambodia’s food security, Phuo Puy said. He added that the millers expected to sell their stocks by November in order to be able to purchase new rice during the coming harvest.
“We observe that Cambodia now has enough rice to serve the domestic market, so we don’t worry about this,” Phuo Puy said by telephone. “There is enough supply to export rice,” he added.
The Cambodia Rice Millers Association also plans to request $70 million to $100 million in loans from the government in order to double the amount of stored rice in Cambodia next year to 800,000 tons of paddy rice, Phuo Puy said.
He added that for the 2007-2008 harvest, the rice millers had received $14 million in government loans.
Rice millers have already sold 350,000 tons of paddy rice in 2008 on the domestic and international markets, Phuo Puy said.
Minister of Agriculture Chan Sarun said he supported the plans to increase the amount of rice stored by rice millers, but he added that the government had yet to see any request for loans.
The amount the rice millers want to borrow from the Ministry of Finance and the Rural Development Bank should be bigger, Chan Sarun added, as rice production is expected to rise from 6.4 million tons of unmilled rice last harvest to about 7 million tons this year.
