Rigged

The biggest news on Cambodia's rice front the past month, if not for the past few years, is Cambodia losing free access to European markets.

The Khmer Times (Nov. 14) presents the statistics:

'Cambodia’s rice export fell 13.20 percent in the first ten months of 2018 due to two factors, the European Union stopped buying Cambodian rice and the 300,000 tonnes quota to China was not fulfilled, said Kann Kunthy, vice president and managing director of Amru Rice Cambodia'.

But the Phnom Penh Post (Nov. 19) describes what's happening:

'AMRU Rice (Cambodia) Co Ltd, one of the Kingdom’s main rice exporters, has appealed to the EU to reconsider imposing a tax on the Kingdom’s rice exports to all EU member states.

The company expressed concern that the EU action on the Kingdom’s rice exports will impact the entire industry, according to a letter sent to the EU Commission Directorate-General for Trade.

...

Ngin Chhay, director of the General Directorate of Agriculture at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, said that the Commission’s decision is unfair for the Cambodian rice industry.

“The statement from the EU regarding indica rice kind of puts pressure on Cambodia, which just stepped into [a stage of] better [economic] development."

“It is not fair for us to be based on EBA status policy and the WTO. Our rice production is based on the export of fragrant rice and does not hurt the Italian market,” he said.

The share of the EU rice market captured by Cambodian rice has grown from 15 per cent in 2013 to 25 per cent last year, said the EU.

Meanwhile, the share of the rice market controlled by European producers has fallen from 61 per cent to 39 per cent over the same period'.

But later (Phnom Penh Post, Dec. 3) it presents this:

'The president of the Cambodia Rice Federation (CRF) has expressed concern over an impending EU tariff on Cambodian rice imports, saying that it is factors within EU states that are harming European farmers most.

“Difficulties faced by European farmers are largely due to the lack of collaboration between them, millers and traders,” CRF president Sok Puthyvuth told the press on Friday.

He said the “high cost of milling in [EU]member states” was the main obstacle to improving European rice industries, not imports of Cambodian rice.

Sok Puthyvuth’s comments come following a November 5 announcement from the European Commission, an arm of the EU, that exporters of Cambodian and Burmese Indica white rice will face increased taxes within three years.

The customs tariff duty will be €175 (US$198) per tonne in the first year, €150 in the second year, and €125 the year after.

...

However, the CRF is sceptical that safeguard measures will improve the livelihoods of EU farmers, as much of Cambodian rice is not directly competing with their produce. As much as 55 per cent of Cambodian rice currently imported into the bloc is fragrant rice – a variety difficult to grow in the EU'.

So both describe a link between research on import pricing and the institution of import fees by the EU. 

However it seems that this link is non-existent. 
The missing link is politics. The Asian Times (Oct. 9):  

'Months after Cambodia held what many observers saw as a badly rigged election, the European Union is ramping up trade pressure in punitive response to the move away from rights and democracy.
The EU announced on October 5 that Cambodia would lose its special access to European markets under the so-called Everything But Arms (EBA) preferential trade scheme after it conducts a six-month review of its duty-free status launched last week'.

It also seems to have had an immediate effect as there have been tentative steps set in the opposite direction, back from the brink of totalitarianism towards a poor facade of democracy. But not.

To be continued.

Trace

Other rice related news from the Khmer kingdom. The Khmer Times (Nov. 16):

'Amru Rice, one of the biggest exporters of rice in Cambodia, will purchase about 50,000 tonnes of paddy rice this year from dozens of agricultural communities across the country, amounting to an investment of $17 million.

Song Saran, Amru Rice CEO, said they have entered contract farming schemes with 56 agricultural communities in nine Cambodian provinces, from whom they will be purchasing paddy rice grown following organic techniques.

A significant portion of that investment will be made in Kampong Thom, where the company will buy 12,000 tonnes from 20 agricultural communities. Those communities have so far supplied about 40 percent of what they agreed to, Mr Saran told Khmer Times last month.

The price Amru Rice pays for each ton ranges from $280 to $400, depending on the quality of the product'.

Phnom Penh Post (Nov. 16):

'Oxfam in Cambodia launched the BlocRice project on Thursday – a platform using blockchain technology to connect a network of people in the rice supply chain that aims to ensure farmers get a fair price for their produce.

Working as the pilot test project since April this year, the BlocRice app focuses on transparency and traceability using blockchain technology by implementing smart contracts as a tool and interactive consumer communication apps for a better user interface.

...

In its first year, Oxfam’s BlocRice project will work with 50 small-scale organic-rice farmers in Preah Vihear province.

...

The project digitises and registers these contracts on the blockchain platform. Details such as primary purchase price, trade volume and transportation method are recorded, with cashless payments made to the farmers through bank accounts for traceability'.

Beyond Cambodia. Bangkok Post (Oct. 25) notes the optimism in Thailand concerning it's exports:

'Despite September's export slump, the government remains upbeat about achieving 11 million tonnes of milled rice exports this year on high demand'.

Bangkok Post (Nov. 2) adds this:

'The Rice Exporters Association of Thailand this week said it expects Thailand to meet the 11 million tonne rice export target before the end of the year.... Vietnam's rice exports in January-October were forecast to rise 3.4% from a year ago to 5.24 million tonnes, government data showed'. 

From the rice odd-news desk. Bangkok Post (Nov. 25):

'Wit Worawong, the director of the rural roads office in Buri Ram province, said farmers who use public roads to dry paddy are violating the Highway Act by obstructing vehicles. Violators are subjected to a fine of up to 60,000 baht and/or a maximum jail term of three years, the official added'.

Crime 

GRAIN (Nov. 21) has a state of affairs on nearly 2 decades of Golden Rice promotion:

'The delay of the commercialization of Golden Rice, and the ‘lackluster acceptance’ of the public is due to the inherent flaws and failures of both the technology and the product itself. Golden Rice is going to be useless and unlikely to achieve its objective of helping to solve VAD [Vitamin A deficiency] if its beta-carotene is consistently low, and even prone to degradation. Yields have been consistently low, indicating that farmers might suffer economically if they choose to plant Golden Rice. Meanwhile, Golden Rice will allow corporations to set their foot at the door of our agriculture and introduce more genetically-modified food crops.

Pro-Golden Rice groups have always been accusing Golden Rice detractors, blaming them as responsible for the death of millions of children suffering from VAD. But, who is really committing the crime?

While these pro-GR groups keep tagging the Golden Rice detractors as ‘vandals’, they also continue to take for granted the realities of hunger that these farmers and the Asian peoples are experiencing on a daily basis. Our countries are blessed with bountiful resources to feed our population, but poverty and social inequalities stop people from procuring safe and nutritious food. Golden Rice will never solve VAD and will only strengthen the status quo, benefiting only those interested in controlling our nations’ agricultural sector.

The real crime against humanity is committed by the pro-Golden Rice camp by peddling a GM product that is not tested nor proven to be safe. In fact, this can turn into a situation where the ‘medicine’ is worse than the illness it intends to cure.

Golden Rice is a techno-fix to malnutrition and a corporate ploy to control our agriculture. It is not needed by Asian people nor the world. Indeed, the solution to hunger and malnutrition lies in comprehensive approaches that ensure people have access to diverse sources of nutrition. Securing small farmers’ control over resources such as seed, appropriate technologies, water and land is the real key to improving food production and eradicating hunger and malnutrition'.

Over in Thailand there's much discussion on banning agrochemicals; the worst of those them that is. The Nation (Oct. 26):

'Farmer groups expressed their concern that agrochemical control measures proposed in the new ministerial regulation will turn them into criminals, as they will be forbidden from spraying herbicides on their farms without proper training.They were conveying their apprehensions yesterday at a public hearing arranged by the Agriculture Department on the draft of the Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry regulation to enforce tighter controls on the use of paraquat, chlorpyrifos and glyphosate.... Meanwhile, BioThai Foundation director Withoon Lienchamroon said his organisation had not had a chance to participate in the public hearing on the new ministerial regulation draft, as the Agriculture Department had not invited his or other organisations that were opposed to the use of the hazardous farm chemicals.“Despite BioThai Foundation being one of the stakeholders on this issue, as we have been actively campaigning to ban paraquat and chlorpyrifos and limit the use of glyphosate from the beginning, we were not invited to this public hearing,” Withoon said.“This shows a serious lack of transparency in the ministerial regulation  draft. The Agriculture Department should have invited all stakeholders  to consider the controlling measures for these hazardous farm chemicals together.”Nevertheless, he insisted that though the regulations on the use and contribution of these three farm chemicals are becoming stricter, they are still not enough to prevent adverse impacts to the environment and public health'.

Prices

Let's look at other crops in Cambodia and what looks like their increasing attractiveness. 

The Khmer Times (Nov. 29) on cassava:

'The price per kilogram of cassava exports from Cambodia has this year increased mainly due to rising demand from neighbouring Thailand, Pang Vannaseth, director of Banteay Meanchey’s agriculture department, said yesterday.

Mr Vannaseth said the price increase is for both fresh and dried cassava'.

Corn. The Khmer Times (Nov. 27):

'Corn prices has risen in the second season this year to 580 riels (about $0.14) per kilo, compared to 380 riels (about $0.09) in the first season mainly due to a reduction of land under cultivation, insiders said yesterday.

Chhim Vichara, director of the Battambang provincial Agricultural Department, said this year the province planted corn on 128,000 hectares in both seasons and 116,100 hectares have so far been harvested'

While the Phnom Penh Post (Nov. 14) on the same subject:

'The price of corn in Battambang province increased by 130 riel ($0.03) to 590 riel per kilogramme in the second harvest season compared to the first, the provincial Department of Commerce said.

The crop is grown twice a year, with the first harvest from late June to August and the second from late October to February. The price in the first harvest was 460 riel per kilogramme'.

The Phnom Penh Post (Nov. 13) has stats on sugar:

'Cambodia's three major sugar companies produced 120,126 tonnes of raw sugar in the first nine months of this year, said a Ministry of Industry and Handicraft report.

It said Rui Feng (Cambodia) International Co Ltd produced 56,664 tonnes, Yellow Field (Cambodia) International Ltd (51,420 tonnes) and Koh Kong Sugar Industry Co Ltd (12,042 tonnes). Phnom Penh Sugar Co Ltd did not provide figures, said the report.

The report does not provide last year’s figures for comparison. However, Cambodia’s five major sugar producers exported just four per cent of the country’s planned refined sugar capacity to the international market in 2016 or just 80,000 tonnes, said a previous report from the ministry.

...

The ministry’s figures show that families cultivated 19,717ha of sugarcane last year – an 11 per cent decrease from 2016. Yield also fell by 15 per cent to 629,320 tonnes'.

With the widely reported land issues involved, this matter of fact presentation misses what the cost of this sugar production was.
Well, attribution. The Phnom Penh Post (Nov. 5):

'The victims of Ly Yong Phat’s Phnom Penh Sugar Company development project in Kampong Speu province’s Oral district said they are “happy” to hear that ANZ Bank had declared to the Australian Parliamentary Committee that it would consider compensating those affected by the project.

While on sugar, heed this article by Bangkok Post (Nov. 26) which informs it's  readers on all sugary affairs, notably how the Thai are slowly freeing up their market. But they are quite aggrieved that India seems to be working in opposite direction which has meant that Thailand has complained to WTO on stated nation.

 

Leads
Getting organised.

Phnom Penh Post (Nov. 12):

'The government has formed a new federation for the country’s pepper industry to enhance the market and solve challenges in the sector, as the cash crop is currently facing depressed prices.

The Cambodia Pepper and Spice Federation was jointly formed last Friday by the Ministries of Commerce, and Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

Amru Rice Cambodia CEO Song Saran who has been elected as the federation’s president said it is no different from the Cambodia Rice Federation in that it will work on seeking markets for pepper and be involved in pepper cultivation issues.

...

The pepper federation has 17 members from pepper cooperatives across the Kingdom that will raise issues to the federation and work together with the two ministries to resolve them.

Saran said the country grows mainly black pepper, of which 20,000 tonnes on average are produced annually.

He said the pepper price currently stands between $2.50 and $3 per kg, which is not sustainable for farmers'.

Phnom Penh Post (Nov. 9):

'The Switzerland-backed non-governmental organisation, HEKS/EPER, announced to launch a five-year, $7.8million development project for cashew nuts in Cambodia, with a goal to improve the livelihood of rural families.

The project, which will be implemented between this year and 2022, was announced in a workshop yesterday in Phnom Penh and is expected to boost food security, income and land management for poor communities.

...

The country director for the Swiss Development Agency, Carin Salerno, said the project can only be successfull if all stakeholders were involved, especially local communities and government institutions.

“This project will strengthen knowledge about cashew cultivation techniques and ensure market price stability for the community,” she said, adding that the project would also help to prevent indigenous communities from becoming victims of land grabs'.

Tradewars

The Bangkok Post (Nov. 25) has an article which looks at the wider implications for rubber growing in Thailand as effected due to the trade dispute between China and the US:

'But the rubber trade is at a crossroads as a bitter dispute between the world’s two biggest economies ricochets across Southeast Asia with unexpected consequences.

Countries like Vietnam are benefiting as manufacturers migrate from China to avoid punishing tariffs on exports to the US.

But in Thailand, the price of rubber has slumped 20 per cent since June, as those same tariffs bite hard on demand from factories in China – the market for more than half its latex exports.

...

The country [Thailand] currently produces about 4.6 million tonnes of rubber a year and the sudden drop in Chinese demand has compounded a longer term global oversupply crisis to push prices off a cliff.

“A climate of uncertainty” pervades the industry after US tariffs hit nearly half of all Chinese imports, according to Karako Kittipol, marketing manager at Thai Hua Rubber.

“Chinese companies don’t want to have too much rubber in stock,” he told AFP.

The value of the yuan against the US dollar has also dipped, making rubber more expensive for Chinese manufacturers to buy'.

Thailand's the Nation (Nov. 15) looks at what the national government is doing:

'The agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry plans to seek a budget of more than Bt10 billion to help rubber growers and tappers cope with the dropping price of rubber. 

“We intend to compensate them more than we did last year,” Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister Grisada Boonrach said yesterday. 

...

Meanwhile, oil-palm growers in Krabi province yesterday continued burning their crop for the third consecutive day to protest against the drop in price. So far, they have already burned down more than 50 tonnes of oil palm. 

It doesn't seem to effect Cambodia though. The Phnom Penh Post (Nov. 27):

'Cambodian rubber exports during the first 10 months are up 24 per cent, while the price decreased 18 per cent compared to the same period last year, figures from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said'.

Interestingly an article from the Khmer Times (Nov. 30) on coffee growing in Cambodia: 

'With demand for the commodity booming, the area used for coffee plantations in Mondulkiri has doubled in just a few years, and it will continue to grow, says Seng Se, chief of agronomy at the provincial department of agriculture.

There are now 206 hectares of coffee plantations in the province, 132 of which belong to corporate entities, while the rest are owned by smallholder farmers, according to Mr Se.

A kilogram of non-organic coffee fetches $2.5 in the local market, much higher than a few years back, when it sold by just $1, Mr Se says, adding that the price for organic coffee is much higher.

...

According to research conducted by CEDAC, Cambodia currently produces about 300 tonnes of coffee beans a year. However, it is estimated that total demand in the country sits at around 5,000 tonnes a year, which means that most of the beans Cambodian consume are coming from abroad, particularly Vietnam, Laos and Thailand'.

The Khmer Times (Nov. 13) reports on efforts in promoting banana's-for-China scheme:

'In an effort to ensure compliance with sanitary and phyto-sanitary standards in the Chinese market, the Ministry of Agriculture will send teams to registered banana farms to conduct on-site checks.

The announcement of these inspections follow a statement by the ministry in August urging farmers, owners and exporters to register with the ministry to gain access to technical assistance that will help them achieve compliance with SPS requirements demanded by Chinese buyers'.

Possibly the backers are unaware that banana growing is not viewed as positive elsewhere in the region. RFA (Nov. 30):

'Chemicals released into a river by a Chinese-owned banana farm near the Lao capital Vientiane killed over 300 kg of fish in November, prompting warnings by authorities to local villagers not to bathe or fish in the polluted stream, sources in the country say.

...

Also speaking to RFA on condition she not be named, a Lao expert on foreign investments in Laos said the country’s government should consider as a priority the impact of foreign-owned concessions on local people, and that if a business is found to have broken the law, its permit should immediately be canceled.

“Foreign business owners who invest in our country often do not follow our laws or protect our environment,” she said. “And even if we give them two or three chances [to do better], they will often make the same mistakes.”

“The authorities should find more qualified investors,” she said.

Illnesses and deaths have long been reported among Lao workers exposed to chemicals on foreign-owned farms, with many suffering open sores, headaches, and dizzy spells, sources told RFA in earlier reports.

Chemical run-off from farms has also polluted many of the country’s water sources, killing fish and other animals and leaving water from local rivers and streams unfit to drink, sources say'.

Freshplaza (Nov. 30) reports that growing bananas in Laos doesn't seem as profitable as perceived:

'Nowadays, investing in bananas in Laos has to take into account the cost of land rentals, agricultural materials, labor and freight. When arriving at customs, the cost per acre of bananas is about 5,000-7,000  yuan. Such a cost price doesn't have significant advantage over Guangxi, and is slightly higher than that of Zhanjiang and Yunnan in Guangdong'.

On other fruits, the Phnom Penh Post (Nov. 15) reports:

'The Kingdom’s first $10 million fresh fruit processing plant will launch in December this year in Kampong Speu province. It will benefit farmers, especially those who grow mangoes, said the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

Owned by South Korea’s Hyundai Group, the plant lies on a 3ha plot in Kampong Speu province’s Phnom Sruoch district.

...

Hyundai Corporation inked a deal with local mango producer Mao Legacy Co Ltd in November 2016, which has about 2,400ha of mango farms in Kampong Speu province.

The Korean company hopes to process 50,000 tonnes of fruits annually, including coconut, durian and mangosteen.

The Hyundai Group has 44 branches worldwide and a strong network for the export of Cambodian food products.

“We already received an order of more than 6,000 tonnes of mangoes, but we are not in a hurry as we have to compete with fruits from Thailand and the Philippines,” Lee said.

The ministry said Cambodia exported 77,421 tonnes of mango last year, increasing almost three-fold from 22,114 tonnes in 2016. Reports show mangoes were cultivated on 151,602ha last year'.

An interesting article concerning Malaysia's durian trade. The Nation (Nov. 2):

'Deputy Agriculture and Agro-based Minister Sim Tze Tzin outlined a nightmare scenario for durian lovers here, saying that Malaysians will have none left to savour if demand for the "king of fruits" increases in China.
"We are producing 300,000 tonnes of durians a year and currently exporting 5.8%, or 17,000 tonnes to China.
"In comparison, Thailand exports 300,000 tons a year and if China has the same demand for durians from Malaysia, there will be none left here," he said in his ministerial reply on issues raised during debates during the Mid-Term Review of the 11th Malaysia Plan on Thursday (Nov 1).
However, he assured lawmakers that there is an adequate supply of durians for locals as China only imported premium durian varieties.