Concerning Cambodian rice news, what surprises most is the source, the Khmer Times. However the news it reveals is less prone to surprise.
First of all the Khmer Times (Feb. 27) reports :
'The price of Cambodian rice abroad has been on the rise since the beginning of February due to higher demand in China and the European Union, a representative of a local rice export company told Khmer Times'.
Basically it's following overall price increases on the globe.
Then the news that the Cambodian government wants to assure it's customers. The Khmer Times (Feb. 15):
'The Ministry of Commerce launched a new agency whose aim is to inspect the production and supply chain of rice branded as ‘made in Cambodia’ to guarantee its origin and provide assurance to foreign buyers.
With Cambodian rice having won multiple international awards for its quality, the move seeks to prevent the sale of foreign rice falsely claiming to hail from the kingdom.
The initiative is precautionary as, according to a ministry official, very few cases of ‘fake’ Cambodian rice have been reported to date'.
Finally, more interesting, an article from the Khmer Times (Feb. 23) concerning contract farming:
'Contract farming schemes in the kingdom work best under the centralised and the multipartite models, a study released yesterday by The NGO Forum on Cambodia revealed.
...
The study looks at contract farming schemes implemented by a group of agribusiness companies, including Amru Rice, Angkor Kasekam Roongroung, Confirel, Golden Rice, Lors Thmey, Cedac, East-West Seed, Entree Baitang, Mong Reththy and Natural Garden.
Researchers interviewed 70 small landholder farmers engaged in six different contract farming programmes, including contracting farming through agricultural communities and semi-formal contract rice farming.
Findings showed that “Contract farming can benefit both small landholder farmers and agribusiness companies the most when programmes are properly designed for a long-term relationship.
”It also concluded that even poorer, marginal farmers can take advantage of contract farming opportunities and that governmental policies that impact access to seeds and land rights are not sufficient to meet the needs of both small landholder farmers and agribusiness companies.
The study recommends the donor community to do more to encourage long-term, mutually beneficial contract farming programmes and to promote other engagement modalities between small landholder farmer and agribusiness companies'.
Lightheaded
Looking over the border the Bangkok Post (Feb. 9) also reflects on the nation's rice market conditions:
'Paddy prices for hom mali fragrant jasmine rice have surged to a five-year high, boosted by rising global demand.
According to Commerce Minister Sontirat Sontijirawong, purchase demand has led to a surge in paddy prices, particularly for hom mali paddy, whose price stands at 17,000-18,000 baht a tonne, the highest in five years and up from 9,500-11,600 baht a year ago.
"The ministry is upbeat that paddy prices will rise further, especially for hom mali rice, which is in high demand among rice exporters because of limited supply and depleted state stocks," Mr Mr Sontirat said. "The prospects of Thai white rice are likewise positive, thanks to higher purchase demand from foreign buyers and depleted state stocks."
He said overall rice exports look promising after Thailand shipped 1.2 million tonnes of milled rice worth US$578 million or an average $474.91 a tonne in January. Shipment volume rose by 16.5% from 1.03 million tones in the same month in 2017. The Commerce Ministry forecasts rice exports to stay at 9.5 million tonnes of milled rice this year, easing from a record high of 11.6 million tonnes in 2017'.
The rise though of the local currency vis-à-vis the dollar may make Thai rice less competitive.
The Nation (Feb. 21) shows a vdo of what should have been an auspicious occasion:
Accompanying text:
'The rice saplings that were thrown to mark an auspicious start to the government’s Thai Niyom scheme – which aims to diagnose people’s problems at a local level – were supposed to land in a rice field.
Instead, they accidentally landed on Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha’s head, prompting a lighter atmosphere amid the stress that has been building up on the government around the scheme, which some see as a political move by Prayut ahead of the election'.
In reality it's actually seen as another sign that the junta's time may well be up ...
Power
A chapter for snippets.
Away from the rice, the Phnom Penh Post (Jan. 31) reports on promised developments for the cashew sector:
'Cambodia and Vietnam signed an agreement earlier this month to greatly expand Cambodia’s cashew exports by 2028, but the proposed export level would require several hundred thousand hectares of additional land and there is no concrete plan yet to meet the target.
Cambodia’s Ministry of Agriculture and the Vietnamese Cashew Association (Vinacas) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to increase Cambodia’s cashew exports to 1 million tonnes by 2028, up from the about 73,000 tonnes exported last year. Vinacas also gave the ministry a $66,000 grant to support the same target in December'.
Cassava is on the up. The Phnom Penh Post (Feb. 21):
'The price of cassava jumped sharply this year as many farmers who were fed up with low profits for several years in a row changed crops, thus decreasing the market’s supply and raising the price.
Last year during cassava harvesting season – traditionally from December to April – the price for 1 kilogram of fresh cassava was about 108 riel, or $0.026, while this year it was up to 250 riel, according to Kim Hout, director of Battambang’s Provincial Commerce Department. The price of dried cassava was 715 riel per kilogram, up from 575 riel in 2017'.
The Bangkok Post (Feb. 25) on the kingdom's rubber throes:
'Farmers have urged the government to help shore up the price of rubber by bartering with foreign countries for military equipment and vehicles'.
And an article by the Bangkok Post (Feb. 6) concerning how agricultural trade takes place in Thailand:
'Welcoming Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha to her neighbourhood along the Chanthabun River yesterday, 58-year-old Siripataorn Thanaphurikiatkrai said she hopes the government will help lessen their dependence on merchants or middlemen who are predominantly foreigners, especially Chinese, and who usually have the power to set prices which sometimes are unfair to growers'.
Blazed
Grain (Feb. 22) has an article on the golden rice developments which seem to be edging forward, a movement in which the hybrid rice industry draws hope that if regulated, then so will their products become acceptable.
'The recent release of Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) approval report of International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) application for a Golden Rice ‘safety stamp’ and trade liability clearance have garnered negative reactions and widespread critique.
Testbiotech, a non-profit organization founded as an Institute for the Independent Impact Assessment of Biotechnology in 2008 in Munich, Germany concluded that the “application does not show substantial benefits. Furthermore, the risk assessment as performed by FZANZ is not sufficient to demonstrate safety of food derived from GR2 (Golden Rice 2).” Aside from expounding on the questions of nutritional viability and genetic stability of Golden Rice, Testbiotech also criticized lack of toxicological studies, exclaiming that “…it is self evident that food products with no history of safe use must be subjected to highest standards of risk assessment before the most vunerable groups of the population are exposed to it…”
Civil society in Australia and New Zealand also challenged the soundness of FSANZ decision and appealed to review its approval'.
Continuing with big money issues, the Guardian (Feb. 27) reports on action in Sumatra concerning oil palm expansion:
'Dramatically carved into the landscape of a Sumatran oil palm plantation that borders one of the world’s most unique rainforests are three ominous letters: SOS.
The message stretches half a kilometre alongside a snaking river; a bird’s-eye view gives the eerie sense the land has been given voice, and is issuing a mayday.
“From the ground, you would not suspect anything more than just another palm oil plantation. The aerial view, however, reveals the SOS distress signal,” says the Lithuanian artist Ernest Zacharevic. For a week Zacharevic has been carefully plotting his concept out tree by tree – or oil palm by oil palm – all 1,100 that were cut down to etch out the message.
The work in Bukit Mas, Sumatra, is intended to convey a pressing distress signal, drawing attention to the ongoing destruction of Indonesia’s rainforests and the critically endangered species, such as the Sumatran orangutan, that reside within it.
...
This year the artist has collaborated with the Sumatran Orangutan Society (SOS), which, together with the cosmetics company Lush, raised the funds to buy the 50-hectare (124-acre) oil palm plantation with the intention of reforesting it entirely.
Before the oil palms are replaced with tens of thousands of native seedlings, Zacharevic was offered the chance to bring his idea to life.SOS’s director, Helen Buckland, was on site as the art project was under way and cheered as the oil palms were felled'.
Interesting to see, that despite all the negatives surrounding palm oil plantations in Southeast Asia, it's hard to convince policy makers that the route taken needs to take a different direction.
It's very well illustrated in the documentary Green Gold, which I viewed recently.
Europe's response to the oil crisis has been to advocate oil substitutes such that even these have become big business with the gross misconduct concerned with large players.
Even on small scale this has it's imitators.
Mongabay (Mar. 1) describes how on Borneo even local politicians are setting up companies for relatives awarding these with the necessary permits after which the companies are then sold to larger companies, all at the expense of local communities / environment.
What Green Gold perfectly portrays, is how when the bigger companies smell money to be made, there's precious little that can stand between them and their profits. Energycollective (Nov. 20):
'Ghizzardi recounts the case of UPM, the Finnish paper company that discovered biofuels on a hunt for new products to make up for falling paper sales. It started making biodiesel from crude tall oil (CTO), a by-product of pulping pine trees. The result? A furious chemicals sector coming out with guns blazing to protect what it regards as one of its own raw materials'.Profit seeking behemoths are dictating our future rather than ourselves.
