Double

The best news on rice production in Cambodia may well be from an official news source, the Agence Kampuchea Presse (Jun. 5):

'Demand for organic rice is on the upturn both in domestic and international markets, according to local media report.
The report examined the trend grounding on positive performance of a leading local non-governmental organisation known as CEDAC – Cambodian Centre for Study and Development in Agriculture – that promotes organic rice growing and exports.
CEDAC Executive Director Mr. Sam Vitou was quoted claiming that his organisation has so far purchased almost 5,000 tons of organic rice from farmers – the amount that doubles last year, thanks to the increasing demand for the product.
According to the executive director, the increase has been driven by both local and international markets; and the current biggest markets for the organic rice are the United States of America and Hong Kong of China.
Inspired by the trend, CEDAC is expected to encourage some 2,500 farmer households in ten provinces of Cambodia to produce 12,000 tons of organic rice for 2017-2018.
The exporting organic rice, emphasised the source, undergoes standardised technical testing for harmful chemical substances in order to guarantee the product quality among the customers'.

Meanwhile officialdom is still in a quandary as to what to call Cambodian rice. Or better said, how to market Cambodian rice produce. The Khmer Times (Jun. 5):

'Government task forces will meet this week to finalise a single brand under which Cambodian rice will be exported.
Those at the meeting will include the Cambodia Rice Federation, the Agriculture Ministry and the Commerce Ministry.
“We don’t know when the exact date for registration will be because they just applied for registration last week,” said Op Rady, director of the intellectual property rights department of the Ministry of Commerce.
“We have talked several times. The CRF wants to use the name Angkor Malis but the Agriculture Ministry suggested it reconsider the name.
Hean Vanhan, director-general the general directorate of agriculture, said registration of a single rice brand was the duty of the commerce ministry.
Agriculture officials said Cambodia had more than 10 varieties of fragrant rice, and should not single out one as a single brand.
...
He suggested that a non-specific ‘Angkor Rice,’ with the specific variety written underneath would help clear up the confusion and prevent people from thinking they were buying a specific rice variety when they might be buying a different premium rice'.

Rice storage means good. The Khmer Times (Jun. 7):

'Rice millers can expect a certain degree of price stability in their exports with the construction of a 200,000-tonne capacity rice warehouse and a 3,000-tonne silo facility in Battambang province'.

But is the following still good? The Phnom Penh Post (Jul. 3):

'A proposal for a massive warehouse and silo that has attracted two Chinese investors aims to fill the Kingdom’s conspicuous gap in paddy rice storage capacity, which still falls 60 percent short of the level needed for the country to achieve its goal of 1 million tonnes of annual rice exports.
Private Chinese firms Jilin Province Investment Group Co Ltd and Jilin Tianzhong Agriculture Development Co Ltd signed a memorandum of understanding on Thursday with local conglomerate Soma Group to build a “huge” storage facility to serve Cambodia’s rice producers.
According to Hun Lak, vice president of the Cambodia Rice Federation, the companies will conduct a feasibility study to determine the location and investment size of the initial storage complex, with Battambang and Takeo provinces favoured. Additional storage facilities could be developed in other areas, he said'.

And then some news on how international donors keep the ball rolling. The Cambodia Daily (Jun. 21):

'A World Bank subsidiary will soon start training 2,000 farmers contracted to supply a leading Cambodian rice exporter on how to meet an international farming standard.
The International Finance Corporation will work with Amru Rice over three years to implement the U.N.-led Sustainable Rice Platform (SRP) in Kompong Cham province, the two organizations announced on Tuesday in a statement.
Farmers will be scored on 46 criteria, including record keeping, seed variety, pesticide choice, water management and the use of child labor.
Hean Vanhorn, deputy director-general at the Agriculture Ministry, said it was the first time the standard was being introduced to the sector, and explained that the project could help contract farmers market their paddy rice'.

Bird conservation and dry season rice cropping. A very interesting article though the obvious outcome may well be depressing. Conservation.com (Jun. 20):

'I’d been in Cambodia six weeks, and this was one of the last villages left to survey. I was researching the impact of local communities’ livelihoods on a critically endangered bustard species; the Bengal florican (Houbaropsis bengalensis). Fewer than 1,500 florican remain globally, over 60% of which seasonally reside in the grasslands of Kampong Thom province, central Cambodia.
Male florican are distinctive. If you’re lucky, between February and April you may spy their beautiful black and white bodies leaping 30 metres into the air; performing to impress shy females. However, opportunities for encountering such moments are increasingly rare. In recent decades florican have undergone dramatic population declines, initially driven by over-hunting, but now by widespread habitat loss, primarily due to rice cultivation.
...
It was believed dry season rice was typically grown between December and March. However, my interviews revealed that nearly half of all dry season rice farmers now farm two crops of rice a year, extending the rice cultivation season into June. This is a relatively recent and previously undocumented trend, with significant implications for florican, who visit grasslands from February to July. Expansion of dry season rice not only means less habitat is available for floricans to forage and breed, but it also reduces the time for which it is available. Floricans return to the same large territories each year to mate. This means the miniscule populations that remain are likely returning to increasingly sub-optimal habitat.
In addition, around 95% of the dry season rice farmers I spoke to said that they use fertiliser or pesticides on their crop. Many have to borrow money in order to do so, and sometimes if their crops fail or the market collapses, they may find themselves indebted to credit lenders, forced to sell land to clear their debts. There are also considerable environmental and ecological implications. Agro-chemicals not only reduce food availability, but they typically include substances banned in the West, including DDT, a chemical known to cause egg thinning in birds'.

Peace
Thailand is in the throes of the aftermath of the democratically endorsed and highly popular rice pledging scheme, which current junta uses as a stick to thrash it's democratic predecessor. The Asian Correspondent (Jun. 28):

'IN an editorial this week, Bangkok-based daily The Nation issued a crucial reminder to the country – let cooler heads prevail when the curtains close on Yingluck Shinawatra’s rice subsidy case.
The popular English-language broadsheet’s editors said the outcome of the case, whichever way it goes, has the potential of turning what they described as a period of “suspenseful peace” into one of major uproar'.

Oddly it ends the article thus:

'The only way to avoid turmoil and this “vicious cycle” of unrest, they said, is by calmly looking at evidence from both sides with open minds before passing judgment'.

As if the Thai judiciary normally functions differently.

The Bangkok Post (Jul. 1) mentions on-subject:

'The Public Sector Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) has pushed forward with its investigation into allegations of corruption in the rice-pledging scheme by inviting for questioning suspects in five cases, the PACC chief says'.

Meanwhile the old crop is getting sold. Bangkok Post (Jun. 7):

'The National Rice Policy Committee has approved the 16.56-billion-baht sale of 1.66 million tonnes of old rice to auction winners, leaving only 160,000 tonnes of edible rice in the stockpile.
...
Since the May 2014 coup, the military government has sold more than 14 million tonnes of old rice by auction, fetching about 130 billion baht. The Commerce Ministry plans to call for bids for old rice fit for animal feed this month, and for ethyl alcohol production next month'.

What this means for the market. The Bangkok Post (Jun 20):

'With state rice stockpiles nearly sold off and major rice-producing nations suffering bad weather, Thai rice exports are likely to hit a record high this year, say government and industry officials.
Thailand's 2017 rice exports are tipped to reach 11 million tonnes, the most ever, because of rising demand in rice-importing countries at a time that production in grower countries is falling.
...
But Thai rice supply is limited because of the 2016 drought and the government's policy to encourage farmers to switch to other lucrative crops such as sugar, which has substantially cut supply from the off-season crop dropped by more than 40% from 9-10 million tonnes on average over the past few years to just 5 million tonnes this year, according to data supplied by the Agriculture Ministry'.

So what does the current regime plan? The Bangkok Post (Jun. 28):

'The cabinet yesterday approved a rice insurance scheme for the first crop of the 2017 season, worth 2 billion baht.
...
The government expects the scheme to cover 25-30 million rai of rice farmland. The scheme covers six natural disasters: floods, drought, storms, cold, hail and fires'.

Foreign good
Over to Vietnam. Vietnam has it's own problems concerned with marketing their rice produce. Vietnamnet (Jun. 12):

'According to VIBIZ, the market research and analysis website owned by Global Yoilo JSC, 64 percent of rice in the domestic market is Vietnamese but is labeled as foreign rice so that sellers can make higher profits.
Meanwhile, 53 percent of consumers say they like foreign rice grown in Thailand, Cambodia and Japan.
A report of the company said of the 67 rice products in the domestic market, only 21 products are given Vietnamese names.
...
“Vietnamese prefer foreign rice because they hear Thai and Japanese farmers grow rice with high technologies,” he [Nguyen Van Nam, a renowned economist, and former head of the Trade Research Institute] explained. “They have no information about how rice is grown in Vietnam.”
“Therefore, merchants give foreign names to Vietnam’s rice to sell more products,” he said, adding that Vietnam only imports rice from Cambodia and Thailand in small quantities.
Tran Duy Quy, former head of the Institute of Agricultural Genetics of Vietnam, confirmed that Vietnam has been importing rice from Cambodia and Thailand, but in small quantities. As for the so called ‘Japanese rice’, this is Vietnam’s rice labeled as Japanese rice'.

Vietnam is trying to free up it's export process. Vietnamnet (Jun 21):

'The decree, replacing Decree 109/2010/NĐ-CP on rice export and business, is expected to take effect from January 1, 2018, after which businesses will be able to engage in the free trade of rice without quantitative restrictions.
The decree also removes regulations of criteria for businesses to be eligible to export rice, as well as the floor prices set for rice shipments.
...
Vo Minh Khai, director-general of Vien Phu Organic – Healthy Food Company from the southernmost province of Ca Mau, said that over the past years, rice enterprises that were small scale but produced high-quality rice had not been able to bring their products to the world market.
To export their rice, they had to depend on large companies as intermediaries. Therefore, revising the old decree would create a level-playing field for small rice export firms to proactively access the global market, Khai said.
The new document will also enable businesses to invest in producing high-quality products to compete with rivals from Thailand and Cambodia, he added'.

Likewise, the Hanoi Times (Jun. 24) reports on rice prices looking better:

'According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the demand for Vietnam’s 5 percent broken rice, has been rising, hitting 390 USD per tonne in the early days of June, against 360 USD per tonne to 380 USD per tonne in late May'.

Even without the dam future, Vietnam seems already to be vexed by Mekong upstream efforts which means less water in the delta. Vietnamnet (Jun. 20):

'According to Nguyen Nhan Quang, a river basin management expert, Thailand has had 990 more projects in the northeast on using Mekong’s water to serve irrigation in the area.
In Cambodia, the strategy on stepping up rice cultivation for export is being implemented, with the country seeking cooperation with foreign countries, mostly from China, to expand the irrigation network.In Laos, the current total irrigation area is 166,476 hectares, but the figure is expected to increase by 213,062 hectares by 2030.
As upstream countries try to expand water use, this will be a great challenge for Vietnam’s Mekong Delta'.

Into the deep
From the Phnom Penh Post (Jun. 21), an article about the downward trend for pepper growers:

'The rapid expansion of pepper cultivation in Cambodia coincides with the spice’s plummeting world prices, creating concerns that the glut of pepper ripening on vines across the Kingdom could further erode next season’s market prices and push the sector toward a collapse. Hean Vanhan, undersecretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, said large-scale planting in recent years, encouraged by the soaring prices, has significantly boosted Cambodia’s pepper production. He said total production doubled last year and has increased eight-fold since 2013, with the impact on supply magnified by similar output growth in other major pepper producing countries.
“According to our figures, the growth of pepper production has increased dramatically, but now the big concern for farmers is that the market has stagnated,” he said yesterday.
Ministry data show total pepper production rose to 20,054 tonnes this year, compared to 11,819 tonnes in 2016, and just 2,498 tonnes in 2013. More than 5,000 hectares are now cultivated with pepper, compared to just 400 hectares in 2013.
...
Rothsan [Var Rothsan, adviser to the Ministry of Commerce] added that the ministry was also working on developing a new collective trademark for Cambodian pepper aimed at raising the profile of locally produced, non-GI pepper in international markets – a move that could help reduce the reliance on Vietnamese brokers to access these markets.
...
Yin Sopha, executive director for Memot Dar Pepper Agriculture Development Cooperative, said the domestic farm-gate price of black pepper had fallen to $3.5 per kilo, well below the 2014 high tide mark of $10.5 per kilo. He added that the decline was driving farmers deep into debt'.

Cassava has also all the entrapment's associated with lower prices. The Phnom Penh Post (Jun. 27):

'Cassava prices in Cambodia experienced a sharp drop this month leading to heavy losses for smallholder farmers unable to quickly switch to more profitable crops and recoup their mounting losses, a provincial agriculture official said yesterday.
Faced with low prices of around 144 riel ($0.035) per kilo of fresh cassava at the beginning of the harvest season, which runs from December to April, farmers decided to delay collecting the starchy tuber, only to see prices plummet to a historical low of 108 riel ($0.026) per kilo earlier this month, explained Soy Sopath, agricultural director for Pailin province at the Ministry of Agriculture.
With a breakeven point of 180 riel ($0.044) for fresh cassava, the farmer’s fate went from bad to worse as they are now forced to sell their products at a large loss, he said.
...
Cassava, which is considered to be a cash crop in Cambodia as it is rarely consumed by locals, is popular to grow as it requires less water and fertilisers, and is less prone to disease than other crops, Sopath explained. The government has made numerous attempts to wean Cambodian farmers away from cassava, yet its cultivation continues to expand.
“Farmers keep harvesting cassava because it is not a complicated crop to grow, and its price might increase next season,” he said.
However, falling prices have seen a decline in cultivation in Pailin province, the heartland of cassava cultivation where 90 percent of farmers are involved in the sector. Total cultivation in the province decreased 20 percent this season compared to last, according to Sopath, who said he expected further decline as farmers look to other more profitable crops.
...
However, Soeng Sophary, spokesperson for the Ministry of Commerce, explained that the Ministry of Agriculture and farmers needed to work together to collect and share information in order to better understand price trends in foreign markets so that farmers could time cassava cultivation to satisfy external demand.
“If farmers and agriculture officials cooperate and work smartly to find the right time for cultivation then they would not suffer from such heavy losses,” she said. “In order to add value to cassava, we need to have better quality standards and more technical expertise for processing it in factories.”

But not all alternatives are in the doldrums. The Phnom Penh Post (Jun. 7) reports on coconut oil.

'The Kingdom’s nascent coconut oil industry is facing a shortage of raw materials as local farmers look to make a quick profit by selling young coconuts to drink vendors rather than letting them mature and sell them to health care and cosmetics producers.
Khdib Sreymich, general manager of Coco Khmer, a Cambodia-based producer of virgin coconut oil, which also manufactures a line of coconut-based health and beauty products, said her company is forced to import coconuts from Vietnamese suppliers to meet consumer demand for the company’s products. She explained that the farmers preferred to sell the coconuts when they were young, though mature fruits, which can be sold for higher prices, are needed for coconut oil production.
According to Sreymich, domestic production can only satisfy 10 percent of the company’s demand for mature coconuts. The remaining 90 percent must be imported from Vietnam'.

And then corn. The Phnom Penh Post (Jun. 22):

'Growing demand for animal feed is driving up both the demand and price of corn, with smallholder farmers claiming the field crop offers a more stable market than cassava.
“If we look at the trends in farming, this sector [corn] has a lot more options than other crops, and is less challenging,” said Lor Reaksmey, spokesman of the Ministry of Agriculture. He added that corn, also known as maize, is needed for food consumption and animal feed mills, with high demand both in the domestic and international markets.
Corn is grown on more than 140,000 hectares in Cambodia and can be harvested twice a year, with the main areas of cultivation being Battambang, Preah Vihear and Kandal provinces. Each hectare yields about 4.5 tonnes, putting Cambodia’s total production at around 640,000 tonnes last year.
Reaksmey explained that over 60 percent of domestically produced corn is earmarked for export, with most of these shipments destined for feed mills in Thailand and Vietnam. The remainder is sold to the Kingdom’s feed mills, with a small amount purchased by local food-processing plants and retailers.
...
Ministry of Agriculture data shows total corn exports reached 70,487 tonnes last year, a 25 percent increase over 2015.
Despite this rise, local production cannot satisfy the voracious appetite of the Kingdom’s 15 feed mills, said Hort Pheng, director of the Industrial Affairs Department at the Ministry of Industry and Handicrafts'.

A Chinese agrofair in Phnom Penh. Phnom Penh Post (Jun. 29):

'A major international agricultural fair that brought over 800 Chinese companies to the capital wrapped up yesterday with none of the expected investment agreements signed as Chinese investors appeared cautious about setting up agro-processing facilities in the Kingdom, organisers said.
The inaugural International Agriculture Products and Expository kicked off on June 25, drawing some 800 investors from China and 200 local firms to a four-day expo aimed at showcasing the investment potential of Cambodia’s agricultural sector.
Chea Heng, president of the Cambodia-China Development Friendship Alliance (CCDFA), one the expo’s local organisers, said several major memoranda of understanding (MoUs) had been expected during the fair, but none materialised'.

Expiration date
We've focused earlier on the banana growing rage from China which has set up shop in Laos and northern Thailand. The Vientiane Times (Jun. 10) notes that banana growing is going out of fashion as the land leasers are being held to account:

'A number of banana farms in Oudomxay province have ceased operations after their contracts expired following numerous complaints from local residents that their operations were negatively affecting the environment.
The farms are operated by 11 concession holders. Seven companies are still continuing their operations but four companies’ contracts have expired and the authorities will not renew them.
A provincial Agriculture and Forestry Department official, Mr Bounyeun Xayyaven told Vientiane Times yesterday the 11 companies had concessions and rented the land of local residents to operate their banana farms, but four of those companies had ended their work after their contracts expired.
...
According to a National Assembly report in October last year, some provinces are using too many insecticides, pesticides and chemical fertilisers, but this issue did not feature in reports submitted to the Assembly.
Some people became ill and some allegedly died after pesticide was sprayed on farms, but the reports did not say where this had occurred'.

Not fit

GRAIN has an important feature on Golden rice, a genetically modified organism which has great institutional support as a variety of rice that through the provision of vitamin A can reach many of those facing a dietary shortage of said vitamin (Wikipedia). 

At the same time it seems claims that this is the golden bullet to vitamin A deficiency seem far-fetched and it can't be discounted that the mass of support received, is tied in with companies seeing that acceptance of Golden rice will open the floodgates to more GMO and hybrids being allowed for consumption.

From GRAIN (Apr. 20):

'Applications for the field testing and direct use of Golden Rice, a genetically modified crop touted as the solution to Vitamin A deficiency, is presently filed and awaiting approval from the Department of Agriculture – Bureau of Plant Industry in the Philippines

Asian peoples’ organizations coming from India, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines express deep concern regarding the imminent commercialization of the Golden Rice and other GM crops and its effect to their country’s food security, farmers’ livelihood and environmental health.

...

A recent study made by scientist in India showed that the derived lines of Golden Rice produced phenotypic abnormality and poor agronomic performance making it unfit for commercial cultivation'.

What follows are statements from the many regional partners of GRAIN all equally opposed.

Vetting

Cambodia's rice market is in the doldrums as exports are not adding up. And  the culprit is China, so it seems.  The Phnom Penh Post (Apr. 5):

'Amid concerns that the European Union could reject shipments of Cambodian rice, exporters are pushing for more access to China as an alternative market for the Kingdom’s principal agricultural commodity.

Hun Lak, vice president of the Cambodia Rice Federation (CRF), said just 26 Cambodian millers have satisfied China’s sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) standards, making them eligible to export rice to the Chinese market.

However, another 55 millers “have the quality and capacity to export to China” and have requested an inspection by China’s AQSIQ (General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine) to approve their shipments for export'.

Then the Phnom Penh Post (Apr. 19) drops a hint between the conditions set by China and slowing exports of rice:

'Cambodian rice exports declined dramatically in March, causing the average export growth of the Kingdom’s dominant cash crop to increase by only 3 percent during the first quarter of this year, nearly wiping out the double-digit growth seen in January and February.

According to rice export data released by the Ministry of Agriculture yesterday, Cambodia exported a total of 166,678 tonnes in the first quarter this year, up from 162,220 tonnes during the same period last year. While growth in January and February accelerated greatly by 11 percent and 17 percent respectively, the weighted average was bogged down by a 16 percent year-on-year decline for March exports.

Hun Lak, vice president of the Cambodia Rice Federation (CRF), said yesterday that the March declines can be attributed to stricter sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) standards being imposed on shipments to China, Cambodia’s second largest market after the European Union.

He added that only 26 Cambodian millers have been granted official approval to export to China with another 55 waiting to be vetted by China’s General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine.

“A large amount of the millers that used to export to China in the past are no longer able to export there now,” he said. “If the issue over SPS standards cannot be resolved soon, our export figures will continue to decline and this year will not be good.”

According to Lak, despite CRF lobbying Cambodian authorities to fast-track negotiations with China to allow increased market access, the body has yet to produce tangible results for its members.

...

Song Saran, CEO of Amru Rice, one of the country’s biggest exporters, raised similar concerns about Chinese market access but noted that the Ministry of Commerce (MoC) preemptively submitted a list of only 18 millers, instead of the allotted 26, to China for the current harvest season.

He added that while Amru used to export 7,000 to 8,000 tonnes of rice to China annually in the past, it has yet to be included by the MoC for Chinese clearance.

“Now, we are trying to get into the Chinese market to accelerate our rice exports,” he said, adding that reliance on the EU market had reached a saturation point at about 300,000 tonnes exported annually'.

Cambodia's government's answer from the Cambodia Daily (Apr. 21):

'The Agriculture Ministry is working to have more Cambodian rice exporters permitted to sell in China, as exports to the country have almost doubled in a year, according to government reports.

A statement by the ministry’s general department of agriculture said 26 Cambodian rice companies had so far received permission to export to China, but there were eight others seeking permission who had been denied because they did not mill their own rice. The statement, released on Wednesday, said the ministry’s Chinese counterparts had not responded to requests for increased access'.

The Phnom Penh Post (Apr. 21) reports on the same:

'After Cambodian rice exports declined dramatically in March, caused by what millers claimed was a stricter enforcement of sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures by the Chinese government, the Ministry of Agriculture announced yesterday that it would lobby on the sector’s behalf to allow more millers to be eligible for export.

According to a Facebook post by Hean Vanhan, undersecretary at the Ministry of Agriculture, officials sent a letter to the Chinese government asking for the country to accept rice imports from more than the current 26 that have already been approved. This is the second such letter sent to Chinese officials, according to the ministry.

Vanhan in his post asked millers to understand the difficulties the ministry was facing in reaching an agreement for exports'.

As if this is the only problem faced by rice exports, the other main market for Cambodia's rice, the EU, has also set up a target to be met. The Khmer Times (Apr. 10):

'A senior economist from the Asia Development Bank has warned the EU’s ban of Tricyclazole could damage Cambodia's agriculture sector, as farmers rush to eradicate the use of the fungicide by June.

The strict new limits on pesticides will mean rice exported to the EU must not contain more than 0.01 milligram of the chemical per kilogram of the grain'.

Tricyclazole, a fungicide, is 

'Toxic to aquatic life with long lasting effects'.source

Used to contain rice blast, Cambodia's government is hoping that wishful thinking will contain the residues and will not affect the export of rice to the EU. In all honesty, it has also put some policy in place (Xinhua.net, 28-3) but policy execution remains weak within the Kingdom:

'Cambodia has banned the import of fungicide Tricyclazole after the European Commission required the country's milled rice industry to eradicate the use of the pesticide by June'. 

Verge 

Earlier in the month, the Philippines had been called upon as a potential market. The Cambodia Daily (Apr. 11):

'Prime Minister Hun Sen said on Monday he had urged Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte to invest more heavily in Cambodia’s rice sector, while also acknowledging the need to lower rice processing costs and find new export markets to boost the competitiveness of Cambodia’s most important crop.

 ...

"So I request our farmers to produce good rice seeds and to not use any toxins or poisonous substances that can cause damage and loss of market [access],” Mr. Hun Sen said'.

More from the sidelines. The Phnom Penh Post (Apr. 25):

'Thaneakea Srov (Kampuchea) Plc, the recipient of a low-interest $15 million loan from the state-run Rural Development Bank, inked contracts yesterday with three companies to build and outfit its massive 200,000-tonne capacity silo and warehouse facility in Battambang province.

The facility, which will have an attached mill capable of processing 3,000 tonnes of paddy rice a day, signed a construction agreement with the Cambodian company NGY Investment. It will also purchase machinery from Taiwan’s Agrosun Co Ltd, and Thailand’s International Rice Engineering Co Ltd, according to an announcement by the Rural Development Bank (RDB) yesterday.

Phou Puy, CEO of Thaneakea Srov, said the construction of the facility would begin shortly, with the silo portion expected to be completed by August while the rice mill should be fully operational for the 2018 harvest season.'

And then to wrap up the Cambodian rice news, the consequences of the failing market conditions. The Phnom Penh Post (May 3):

'Numerous members of the Cambodia Rice Federation (CRF), the body tasked with lobbying on the sectors behalf, have stopped paying membership dues and export fees, claiming that they cannot afford to as the industry continues to struggle with high production costs and regional export competition.

According to the terms of CRF membership, each miller is required to pay $200 annually and an export fee of $0.50 per tonne on white rice and $1 per tonne on fragrant rice.

Chray Son, deputy director of Capital Food Cambodia, said that despite the CRF’s efforts to provide relief to its members, the body had achieved little in lobbying the government and instead praised emergency assistance provided by the state-owned Rural Development Bank.

Nevertheless, he added that with monthly losses during the current harvest season amounting to $10,000 to $15,000, CRF fees were exorbitant and exploited millers that were on the verge of bankruptcy'.

Purity

The ongoing discussion of Vietnam's rice export strategy continues. From Vietstock (Apr. 25):

'Vietnam may itself be a major rice producer in the 10-member Asean group but the country also has a taste for the Lao grain.

In 2013, the value of rice exported from Laos to Vietnam reached over US$5.8 million and increased to US$15.5 million by last year, according to the Ministry of Industry and Commerce.

...

In addition, Laos plans to produce about five million tonnes of rice by 2020 to ensure food security in the country.
However, the country is importing rice from Thailand for trading.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry this year expects to export about 400,000 tonnes of rice and hopes the figure will climb to one million tonnes by 2020.

The focus will be on specialty varieties including black rice, kaynoi rice, and hom rice.
New and improved varieties such as thadokkham, thasano, phonngam and hom are also in demand across the region.
The ministry plans to increase yields so that white rice accounts for about 30 percent of the total rice crop and is certified with the Good Agriculture Practice (GAP) standard for export.

...

This year, Xuanye (Lao) Co., Ltd is targeting the export of 20,000 tonnes of rice to China.
In 2015, Xuanye (Lao) Co., Ltd was approved by China’s National Development and Reform Commission to be as yet the sole exporter of rice from Laos to China with a quota of 8,000 tonnes.

Laos was unable to meet the deal and was only able to export some 4,000 tonnes of rice including sticky rice and non-glutinous rice.
The Chinese company also ordered 7,200 tonnes of rice last year but producers were unable to supply this amount.
In 2015 and 2016, the country could supply only 5,000 tonnes of rice to China.
This was because the standard required by the Chinese buyers was really high, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce reported'.

The same, more or less from Vietnamnetbridge (Apr. 2):

'Nguyen Do Anh Tuan, director of the Institute for Policy and Strategy for Agriculture and Rural Development, commented that many Vietnamese now don’t eat Vietnam-made rice, priced at just VND10,000 per kilo. The rice products are just for export, not for domestic consumption.

..

While Vietnam focuses on making high-yield and low-cost rice, more and more Vietnamese only want high-quality products. The choosy consumers accept to pay higher prices to buy delicious rice from Thailand, Japan and Cambodia.

An analyst said Vietnamese people’s income has improved, so they have become choosier about rice price.

“They don’t need much rice; they need high-quality rice,” he commented'.

It's therefore surprising that Bayer are launching hybrid rice with the export market as it's focus. On their own website they report (Apr. 15) on

'... a special event to celebrate the launch of its revolutionary hybrid rice seed variety - Arize Tej Vang'.

It claims:

'“Vietnam is currently the world’s No.2 country in rice export, and there is a continuing need to sustainably increase the nation’s production capacity with better rice seeds so that the country can maintain and even improve its export position in the market. By using Arize Tej Vang, Vietnamese rice farmers can look to achieve higher yields and better grain quality with 7.1mm grain length, and this is proven especially when compared to open-pollinated varieties. Arize Tej Vang will contribute to better yield security and enhanced productivity, which will in turn help to secure the incomes of smallholder farmers in Vietnam,” added Sakata [Kohei Sakata, Managing Director of Bayer Vietnam].

With a grain length of 7.1mm, with a grain of rice when processing fragrant, soft and disease resistance BLB, Arize Tej Vang has the potential to compete with the current high quality purebred rice varieties and to improve the quality of Vietnamese rice exports'.

So the argument is for more quality whereas what Bayer-VN have on offer is more lower quality grain. It's claim that it has better quality than open-pollinated varieties seems shaky; as hybrid rice in the past has often been of much lower quality. 

What is very disturbing is the suggestion that exporting hybrid rice is the way forward. With consumers worldwide being sceptic towards hybrid rice the possibility of hybrid rice getting mixed with other rice varieties may well cost Vietnam dear.

 

Break

Surprisingly the tightening of the rubber market is continuing, partially due to Southeast Asian countries willing to step into the market. From the Bangkok Post (Apr. 23):

'Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia are cooperating to ensure stability of world rubber prices, which continue to fluctuate after signs of recovery. 

... 

They agreed that rubber prices will continue to rise because of several factors, including lower supply due to heavy rainfall and flooding in the South of Thailand. However, the big players in the natural rubber industry see prices as still volatile'. 

Naturally this has also resulted in an upswing for rubber in Cambodia (Phnom Penh Post, Apr. 27)

'Cambodian rubber exports increased 32 percent during the first three months of the year compared with the same period last year, while prices grew 132 percent during the first quarter, an agriculture official said yesterday.

The Kingdom exported 32,000 tonnes of rubber in the first quarter of 2017 with average prices reaching $2,032 per tonne, compared to $890 in the first quarter of 2016, according to Pol Sopha, general director of the General Directorate for rubber at the Ministry of Agriculture.

“We already surpassed the break-even point for rubber and I think that rubber producers will be able to accumulate profit and increase their yields for the next production cycle,” he said. “We project that rubber prices will continue to increase this year due to the increasing demand from the international market.”

...

Heng Sreng, director of local rubber firm Long Sreng International, said the industry also faced the challenge of high logistic costs for transportation and electricity costs for production.

“We are faced with the high cost of production, and that is our biggest challenge,” he said. “Compared to neighbouring countries, they provide better tax incentives to allow the sector to survive.”'

More good news for farmers in Cambodia, cashew prices are also on the up. The Phnom Penh Post (May 4):

'International commodity prices for cashew nuts are rapidly increasing due to lower supply from Cambodia and Vietnam which is driving up profits for the Kingdom’s farmers, according to industry stakeholders.

The shortfalls of cashew supply into the global market have decreased by around 40 percent this quarter due to lower production in Cambodia and Vietnam, although demand has not diminished. 

...

Chhiv Ngy, director of the Cashew Nut Association of Kampong Thom, said that the current market for cashew nuts greatly benefited the country’s farmers, pushing their revenues to $10,000 per hectare.

“The cashew nut market is doing great and we have a lot of buyers coming to buy directly from us,” he said, adding that the association was comprised of around 4,000 farmers'.

Blooming

Wrapping up, two linkages to articles touching on rural development in the region.

In Lao, there's some sound bytes on organics. The Vientiane Times (Apr. 21):

'Expanding clean agriculture production to supply market demands together with improved international market access can serve to catalyse growth in the Lao organic produce sector, an audience including the Minister of Agriculture and Forestry was told yesterday.

...

Mr Vilaysouk [Director General of Department of Agriculture, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry] noted registration of 39 companies and farmer groups with 2,785 families under the relevant organic agricultural registration scheme.

The current area dedicated to growing the organic agricultural is around 7,984 hectares, covering the capital and the provinces of Vientiane, Luang Prabang, Xieng Khuang, Oudomxay, Savannakhet, Champassak and Xayaboury, with yield estimated at 3,375 tonnes per year.

Meanwhile, the members of the Lao GAP now number some 15 farmer groups with more than 500 families, and area for GAP is around 1,400 hectares, in the capital and the provinces of Vientiane, Khammuan, Savannakhet and Champassak.

Vientiane organic agriculture group has several distribution venues across the city.

That Luang village in Xaysettha district hosts organic markets Wednesday and Saturday mornings weekly.

A similar range of produce can be found at Fa Ngum Park in Sikhottabong district, every Monday and Thursday afternoons and at Huayhong Market in Chanthabouly district every Saturday morning'. 

While in Cambodia, fish deaths close to a sugar mill are left un-explained. The

Phnom Penh Post (Apr. 7):

'Experts from the Institute of Standards of Cambodia (ISC) inspected Chinese-owned Rui Feng sugar company’s factory this week after suspicions that its runoff had caused last month’s mass fish deaths in Preah Vihear.

ISC director Chan Borin said yesterday that their team launched an investigation that lasted for two days as the factory was suspected by the local community of releasing waste into the Stung Sen River.

The factory, however, was found to have its own reservoir for waste storage, so the team went to the river for further investigation.

“We measured and tested the oxygen at the site and we figured that the water lacks oxygen, [so] the fish could not breathe and died . . . The level of oxygen is very low,” Borin said.

He added that the sugarcane waste would not have caused oxygen shortage as the “fish in the [waste] reservoir were alive”.

He suspected that plant decay had led to algal blooms, which deprive the river of oxygen'.

Outdated

Don't know whether or not this update affords a lead, it's very much a mixed bag with unusually long quotes. It's mostly what's not rice, that's interesting.

However let's start by looking within the Khmer kingdom. The Phnom Penh Post (Jan. 6) kicks off with a review of last years rice exporting efforts:

'The growth of rice exports slowed to a crawl last year, according to new data, signalling that government initiatives to increase the competitiveness of Cambodia’s mainstay crop had fallen short and raising concerns about the future of the agricultural sector.

According to data received from the Ministry of Agriculture yesterday, Cambodia’s rice exports totalled 542,144 tonnes last year, a mere 3,700 tonnes, or 0.7 percent, more than the country shipped in 2015. The nominal increase followed a growth spurt in 2015 that saw exports climb by 39 percent that year.

...

Hun Lak, vice president of the Cambodian Rice Federation, said 2016 proved to be an exceptionally challenging year for Cambodia’s rice industry. He explained that local exporters had to compete with rival rice-producing countries that were flooding the market with their product, while local farmers struggled against low paddy prices exacerbated by the sector’s shortage of capital and storage capacity.

...

Song Saran, CEO of Amru Rice, said looking back on 2016 exports, the result was “acceptable,” but not satisfying. He said Cambodia’s supply chain was flawed.

“Our supply chain is not balanced, as if you observe the export trend [during the course of the year] it is uneven,” he said.

“Our supply of rice paddy is limited at the beginning of the year, but we have an oversupply of paddy at the end of the year.”

Saran added that despite the high quantity of rice exported, the commodity’s low price level was causing profits in the industry to decline'.

The competition wades in. The Cambodia Daily (Jan. 9):

'An Agriculture Ministry official said on Sunday that slowing growth in Cambodian milled rice exports—increasing just 0.7 percent last year—was the result of outdated policies and was a concerning trend.

...

Mr. Vanhan [ministry’s director of the general directorate of agriculture] said a new rice export policy was being formulated by the Supreme National Economic Council, and would take into account the ways the last five-year plan had failed.

He said last year’s drought could not be blamed for the slowing exports, noting that the industry had hit its target of producing 4 million tons of surplus rice. By contrast, exports are still barely over half the 2015 target of 1 million tons'.

Rather than policies, it's poor market conditions that are to blame for the sluggish growth. Unfortunately the market will not change much in the year ahead.

The above were direct reports on the government data. They were as follows. AKP (Jan. 12):

'Last year, Cambodia exported 542,144 tons of milled rice to international market, up 3,748 tons or 0.7 percent compared to the amount in 2015, pointed out a report of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishery to Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen.

The Cambodian rice was exported to 65 countries, mostly to China (127,460 tons), followed by France (78,329 tons), Poland (64,035 tons), Malaysia (38,877 tons), the Netherlands (28,690 tons), Belgium (22,885 tons), Czech (22,815 tons), Italy (18,619 tons), UK (17,673 tons), Germany (16,616 tons), it added.

If classified by region, EU remains the main buyer of Cambodian rice. Last year, EU bought in total 341,066 tons or 62.9 percent of the Cambodian exported rice, it underlined.

Currently, Cambodia has 85 rice exporting companies, most of them are local rice millers'.

To wrap up this first chapter, a curious posting from the Phnom Penh Post (Jan. 18):

'A Chinese company has unveiled a plan to establish rice production on 4,000 hectares of leased farmland in Takeo province, local media reported yesterday.

The company said it would consider building a large rice mill on the land to process up to 100,000 tonnes of rice a year for export to China. It also unveiled a conceptual plan for a $100-million feed mill'.

Now we all have our doubts whether this will turn to reality, but can someone tell me why there is 4,000 ha farmland waiting for a company to be leased? Surely ensuring locals access to this, would be of a higher priority? Or has the investor been sold short?

Quitters

Cambodia's neighbors are faring none the better on the export market. Vietnamnetbridge (Feb. 3) highlights this by this article:

'Vinh Hoan Seafood Company has decided to quit rice production and export though it spent big money on building a factory and choosing high-quality rice sources for export.

Analysts said that Vinh Hoan made a reasonable decision. Many other rice export companies took a loss in the last year, had to be dissolved or kept operations at a moderate level. Many exporters reported a sharp decrease of 40-45 percent in export volume in 2016 compared with the year before.

...

Seventy-six percent of Vietnam’s rice is exported to Asian markets at low prices, which explains why Vietnam can only obtain modest profits despite high export volume, according to Kien. Meanwhile, more orders have been placed with neighboring countries'.

The news on rice exports from Thailand. The Bangkok Post (Feb. 4): 

'Thai rice exports are expected to drop by 3.8% in volume this year, with export prices likely to stay relatively low because of higher global supply and stiffer competition.

The Thai Rice Exporters Association said shipments should reach 9.5 million tonnes this year, fetching US$4.3 billion or about 150 billion baht.

...

Sales of premium hom mali rice are expected to climb 1.7% this year from 2.36 million tonnes last year. Last year Thailand shipped 9.88 million tonnes of milled rice, up by 0.9% from a year before, valued at $4.4 billion. Thailand trailed only India, which exported 10.43 million tonnes last year, while Vietnam shipped 4.95 million tonnes'.

And the prospects are not much better. The Bangkok Post (Feb. 2):

'Rice shipments from Thailand, the largest supplier after India, are likely to decline about 4% this year amid increased competition from Vietnam and other producers.

...

Competition from Vietnam may cut white rice exports by about 400,000 tonnes to 4.6 million tonnes even as sales of premium jasmine grade rise climb about 9% to 2.5 million tonnes, ...

...

World rice production will increase 1.6% to 480 million tonnes and consumption will rise 1.5% to 477.8 million tonnes, according to the USDA. Output from India, Thailand and Vietnam, the world’s top exporters, will increase this season, data show'.

Though both Thailand and Vietnam seem to be seeing adversity ahead, Lao press sees silver linings in their rice export market albeit solely in that for organic rice. The Vientiane Times (Jan. 16):

'China has approved the purchase of 20,000 tonnes of organic rice a year from Laos, according to Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith.

Mr Thongloun said in talks with Khong district authorities in Champassak province last week that Chinese premier Li Keqiang had agreed to the deal.

...

About 4,000 tonnes of sticky rice and nonglutinous rice has already been delivered to China, and this year the shipment was to be 8,000 tonnes'. 

The same source (Jan. 30) has more:

'Savannakhet and Champassak provinces may soon be producing about 40,000 tonnes of so-called 'clean', organic rice for both local markets and export.

Deputy Director of the provincial Agriculture and Forestry Department, MrViengsaySipraphone, told Vientiane Times on Friday that present estimates suggest that about 40,000 tonnes of rice will be harvested in Savannakhet and Champassak, although the figure may differ in practice.

...

An anonymous official in Savannakhet said that about eight countries from the EU as well as China are importing 'clean' rice from the province. Savannakhet is growing clean rice for export to the EU and China, he said'.

Sunrise

In seeking alternatives the Thai junta is hedging it's future on their so-called megafarms. The Bangkok Post (Jan. 16):

'The government is committed to ramping up the rice megafarm scheme this year, for which it provides soft loans, machinery and agricultural equipment to farmers in order to cut production costs and raise productivity. The scheme will cover 1.05 million rai of related farmland. 

...  

The megafarm project implemented last year entails participating farmers pooling their rice farmland together into one large plot, after which modern equipment, including harvesting machinery, is deployed.

Participating farmers can borrow up to 5 million baht at 0.01% interest from the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC), while the Commerce Ministry is responsible for the marketing and sales of the rice and finding buyers.

Acting as a group, participating farmers can negotiate for better access to markets and financial resources such as loans. This grouping and joint management is intended to ensure efficiency in the entire rice business -- from planning to farming and marketing to distribution.

...

Ms Chutima, a former permanent secretary for the Commerce Ministry, said the ministry will also focus this year on more actively promoting food safety and security and good agricultural practices (GAP) in the farm sector.

"One of the ministry's top priorities this year is to promote the proliferation of GAP so that we can declare to the world in the future that Thailand is a supplier of safe agricultural products such as vegetables to the world," said Ms Chutima. "Although chemicals are used while farming, it requires a long-enough period before harvesting and the residue levels must be at a tolerable rate. This, once achieved, will lead Thailand to the next step of development: chemical-free farming and ultimately organic farming."

So if the future lies ahead, why then does the future also seem behind us? I mean 50 odd years ago, everything was organic. Then we nuked this with fertilizers and chemicals, just to learn that this might be just one big mistake.

Anyway, the Bangkok Post (Jan. 19) continues to explain:

'The government aims to cut rice production to 27.2 million tonnes of paddy from an average of 33 million tonnes a year, shrinking the rice plantation area to 60.6 million rai from 68 million as part of its agricultural reform. Tanit Anakewit, deputy permanent secretary to the Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry, said farming in inappropriate locations produced low-quality rice, mainly during the second crop, and such areas will be encouraged to grow other crops.

...

Mr Tanit said the government's rice megafarm scheme is a move in the right direction as it cuts farmers' production costs. The megafarm project provides soft loans, machinery and agricultural equipment to farmers to cut production costs and raise productivity. It was implemented last year and participating farmers pool their farmland into one large plot, using modern equipment to harvest.

...

Somporn Isvilanonda, a senior academic from the Knowledge Network Institute of Thailand, suggested the government concentrate more on hom mali rice development, noting how Thai premium hom mali rice has been losing its aromatic quality because of improper cultivation processes. The government is also being urged to promote growing coloured rice and organic rice that can fetch higher prices and faces less competition'.

Instead of rice. Bangkok Post (Feb. 1):

'Best known for its historical sites, Sukhothai has introduced a new attraction, a 1,200-rai field of blossoming yellow Indian hemp, grown by farmers to replace second-crop rice. Suchart Rianthong, Sukhothai land development director, said farmers could bury Indian hemp plants to make natural fertiliser for their future rice cultivation. Besides, they could sell hemp seeds at 20 baht per kilogramme to the local land development office and receive a 500-baht subsidy per rai from the government'.

And it also attracts tourists.

Juicy

There's quite a lot of non-rice agricultural news from Cambodia, mostly concerning market niches. 
The Phnom Penh Post reports on mango exports (Jan. 17):

'Sweet and juicy mangoes grown in Cambodia have been finding their way into top Asian markets for years, but until now only through Thai and Vietnamese brokers, and often repackaged or processed into juices and jams to disguise their Khmer origin.

Local producers’ lack of modern processing and packaging equipment meant the only way to access the lucrative Chinese, Japanese and South Korean markets – where the value of Cambodian-grown mangoes can jump by 6,000 percent – was indirectly through middlemen, who raked off most of the profit. But a number of companies are looking to change this supply chain model, and investing accordingly'.

A very interesting read on how an agricultural product in abundance seeks to find markets. 

More abundance, this time from avocado's which have a lot more difficulties in seeking markets, even domestically. The Phnom Penh Post (Jan. 26):

'Avocados have never been a big part of the Khmer diet, making infrequent appearances in dessert dishes or drenched in condensed milk as a smoothie. But a small local market for the green pear-shaped fruit is forming, and experts say it could be a profitable crop for intrepid farmers.

...

Sreng Cheaheng, a Ratanakkiri provincial agriculture official and avocado farmer, said he started farming avocado trees on his land three years ago and now has over 100 trees occupying half a hectare. He said the trees yield about 3 tonnes of fruit a year, which he supplies to the local market for about $2 per kilo.

...

Cheaheng said the market for avocado was growing, and profits were respectable. Dealers who pay his farm-gate price of $2 per kilo can easily sell it in local markets for up to double that price. He said compared to coffee, the other cash crop that grows well in the province’s cool mountain climate, avocados are easier to grow and have higher market demand.

...

Mexican chef Mario Galán, who purchases about 100 kilos of avocado per month for his authentic Mexican restaurant in Phnom Penh, said he experimented with local avocado varieties, but found the quality and taste inferior to Hass avocados imported from Australia and Mexico'.

The same source (Jan. 9) continues with it's ag news, but with a crop that already has a market snuffed out:

Kampot pepper prices are set to remain stable for another year as part of an agreement between local producers that caps prices through the end of 2017, a representative of the pepper association said yesterday.

Ngoun Lay, president of the Kampot Pepper Promotion Association (KPPA), said the price of Kampot pepper, which was awarded the World Trade Organisation’s geographical indication (GI) status in 2010, will not increase during the upcoming season, with harvest set for March.

...

He explained that in 2015 an agreement was signed whereby 18 local pepper producers agreed to maintain prices until the end of 2017 at $15 per kilo for black pepper, $25 per kilo for red pepper and $28 per kilo for white pepper.

“We negotiated the price increases with our buyers in order to achieve a sustainable income for our farmers,” he said. “Right now, we do not plan to increase prices after the agreement, but we will study the market in 2018, at which point, if we do increase prices, it will only be by $1 or 50 cents.”

...

Hong San, director of the Memot pepper and agricultural development cooperative [different province, i.e. not Kampot pepper], said it was difficult to compare the production and prices of the two products, though he noted that pepper produced by his cooperative sells for a much lower $6 to $8 per kilo.

“We cannot compare the price of GI Kampot pepper with our pepper because the quantities harvested are different, though we are satisfied with the current price,” he said.

“If we followed GI production requirements, our farms would not be able to survive because GI requires farming without the chemicals that we use, though our pepper is still of an acceptable standard and is of better quality than in neighbouring countries.”

Quite odd, how it are producers that are setting the prices; what happened to supply and demand? 

Glamour

Whereas the future for rice exports and rice cultivation sees plenty of speed bumps ahead, other major crops seem to be faring better, notably rubber. The
Bangkok Post (Jan. 12):

'Authorities projected a loss of around 10% of rubber output in the 2016-17 crop year after unseasonal flooding affected the country's main growing region, a senior industry official said on Thursday.

...

Thai benchmark USS3 rubber was quoted at 81.05 baht per kilogramme on Thursday, a significant jump from 71.04 baht on Dec 29, before the floods started, according to data kept by Reuters.'.

The rubber news from Cambodia is less positive. The Phnom Pehn Post (Jan. 13):

'Cambodia's beleaguered rubber industry looks set for a turnaround as international rubber prices continue their strong rebound. Local traders and industry officials said yesterday they were optimistic that rubber prices, which doubled during the course of 2016, would continue to rise as the global economy recovers and demand driven heavily by developing economies catches up with supply.

Pol Sopha, general-director of the rubber department at the Ministry of Agriculture, said local rubber producers exported 148,000 tonnes of natural rubber last year, a 13.5 percent increase on 2015’s output.

...

A $50 export tax was charged on rubber when the market price was below $2,000 per tonne. Now exporters must pay $150 per tonne'.

Seems absurd that.

Cassava fares worse. The Phnom Penh Post (Jan. 19):

'With the start of the dry harvest season for cassava kicking off, farmers are calling for the government to support the struggling sector with initiatives to address recurring capital shortages and market volatility.

Sum Heang, head of the Pailin Cassava Association, which represents 52 cassava-growing families in Pailin province, said yesterday the unglamorous root crop has always taken a distant second place to rice on the government’s agenda.

...

Cassava is Cambodia’s largest agricultural export crop by tonnage, and believed to be the second-biggest by value after rice. The cash crop, which has never been a staple of the Cambodian diet, is cultivated on nearly 600,000 hectares, yielding about 13 million tonnes a year for export.

Official export data provided by the Ministry of Agriculture show about 2.3 million tonnes of sliced cassava, 570,000 tonnes of fresh cassava and a small volume of cassava starch, were exported in 2015, mostly to Thailand, Vietnam and China. Most of the remaining 10 million tonnes were believed to have been smuggled across the country’s borders.

...

Mey Kalyan, senior adviser for the Supreme National Economic Council (SNEC), said all of Cambodia’s agricultural sectors were facing issues, and the government had limited resources to address all of them.

This meant the private sector would have to take the lead, starting first off by ending the individualism and haphazard practices that were driving down market prices.

Kalyan suggested that the cassava sector’s stakeholders band together to form an industry body, similar to the Cambodian Rice Federation (CRF).

...

Lor Reaksmey, a spokesman for the Ministry of Agriculture, dismissed the idea of an industry body for cassava producers, claiming it was unnecessary. He said the government recognises the importance of cassava and was seeking new markets for the crop as well as solutions to the issues that farmers face'.

Sugar? Sugar prices are on the rebound, however Thailand's domestic market will have to reform first. The Bangkok Post (Jan. 14) reports on the restructuring:

'Local sugar prices will likely be floated in October, or April next year at the latest, in line with the restructuring plan for the industry. At present, the Cane and Sugar Board under the Industry Ministry sets the ex-factory price of white sugar while the Commerce Ministry sets the retail price, now at 24.50 baht a kilogramme. Thailand has long fixed retail prices above market rates to ensure profits for farmers. The domestic retail price is higher than it should be based on global comparisons, although the gap has narrowed considerably from about five baht per kg two years ago.  

... 

In March, the country slashed its forecast for 2016 sugar exports to 7.1 million tonnes from an earlier estimate of 11 million. Stockpiles in India, the world's third biggest exporter, will fall to 23.3 million tonnes next year, the lowest in over a decade, as consumption outstrips supply, the Indian Sugar Mills Association said in July. Thailand is the world's second-largest sugar exporter by value after Brazil'.

The same source (Jan. 19) continues with an outlook, less rice, more sugar:

'Ethanol shortage concerns in Thailand have subsided on the good sugar yield from the latest sugar cane crop, providing abundant molasses for the ethanol industry, says a senior industrial official. 

...
Supply of the raw materials is expected to rise substantially in the coming years and the government is encouraging farmers to switch from growing rice to sugar cane, which can generate more added value'.

Soiled

Vientiane Times (Jan. 21) describes how authorities are trying to direct banana growing (a popular alternative for upland rice) in a more sustainable direction or else. It seems the else is the only option:

'Bokeo provincial authorities plan to suspend the operations of 18 companies who have invested in banana plantations after inspections revealed they were not complying with the regulations agreed to.

...

Last year, the Prime Minister's Office ordered farms that were preparing to cultivate banana trees to cease work. Companies that own thousands of hectares of banana plantations where trees have already been planted will not be allowed to plant any more suckers after harvesting the crop.

The suspension has been ordered because of the use of hazardous chemicals by Chinese companies, which are harming people's health and the environment.

Chinese-run banana farms are not only found in the north of Laos, there are also hundreds of hectares of bananas in Vientiane province and the capital.

According to a National Assembly report in October last year, some provinces were using too many insecticides, pesticides and chemical fertiliser, but this issue did not feature in reports submitted to the Assembly.

Some people became ill and some had allegedly died after pesticide was sprayed on farms, but the reports did not say where this had occurred.

There are no bananas from Chinese farms for sale in local markets as the farms send all their fruit to China. The bananas are packed in cardboard boxes for immediate shipment to China after they are harvested'.

More on the bananas affair. RFA (Jan. 27):

'Authorities in the northern Lao province of Bokeo suspended the operations of 18 Chinese-backed banana plantations after they discovered widespread violations of the regulations governing the use of agricultural chemicals, government officials told RFA's Lao Service.

...

Instead of growing the native “kuay nam” banana, the Chinese plantations generally produce the world's top banana, the Cavendish.

While the Cavendish is the most popular banana, growing it in the northern provinces requires the use of a cornucopia of pesticides, herbicides, rodenticides, and fertilizers to boost production and ward off the 28 diseases and 19 insects that attack banana plants.

The use of the chemicals has helped the banana plantations thrive, but they have also leached into the ground water, and the thousands of plastic packages that the chemicals were packed in have been strewn across the countryside. In one case, the pollution was blamed for a death'.

Struggle

Finally, the Cambodia Daily (Jan. 12) with some lengthy quotes from an article on how land issues concerned with a proposed sugar plantation are not being dealt with:

'Some 100 farmers who have spent the past 11 days sleeping on land to guard it from bulldozers in Preah Vihear province are exhausted by empty promises from the government to solve their problem.

About 300 km away, in an office on the 15th floor of Phnom Penh Tower, an adviser to Rui Feng, part of a group of linked Chinese firms that plans to turn the area into a sprawling, $360 million sugarcane plantation, said he was feeling much the same way.

“We have struggled with the local people,” Wang Chen said on Wednesday. “The government in Preah Vihear didn’t talk to them. I don’t know why.”

When Rui Feng and its four sister companies were first considering a Cambodia investment 10 years ago, it was an imperfect but plausible scheme, he said.

“If we wanted to build a modern sugar factory—to compete with Thailand, India—we’d need 40,000 to 60,000 hectares. If the productivity of the land is less, then there needs to be more land,” he said.

Cambodia was not the perfect place for the investment. Electricity is expensive, Mr. Chen said—so much so that the company built its own biogas power plant to power its operations. The logistics of the remote site cause perennial difficulty, with unreliable transportation and shoddy roads.

...

Filing for five separate economic land concessions (ELCs) to avoid the legal limit of 10,000 hectares, the companies managed to get 40,000 hectares in Preah Vihear province in 2010. They brought in state-of-the-art machinery—threshers, harvesters—to mechanize the process.

Rui Feng started to clear a stretch of land along National Road 64 in Stung Treng province that stretches as far as the eye can see, and to lay the foundations for a factory to process all the sugarcane being seeded there.

It was in 2013 that locals from all over the area started to demonstrate.

They said that Rui Feng was clearing their ancestral rice land. They slept nights in corners of the concession and nearby fields to prevent them from being cleared. They confronted tractors. They appealed to local rights groups Licadho and Adhoc, and to provincial authorities.

...

Those on both sides agree that authorities in Preah Vihear, after years of promising to resolve the disputes, have achieved next to nothing.

Poek Sophorn, of the NGO Ponlok Khmer, said authorities were failing both parties.

“They make excuses, and make promises in one way. Then they come again and make excuses and make promises in another way,” he said.

...

Mr. Sophorn, of Ponlok Khmer, said the government had initially leased the villagers’ land to the company, but then promised to give some back to the people living on it.

“We’ve seen their maps. The government has drawn it so the rice land of people in three districts is the company’s,” he said.

The fault wasn’t entirely the government’s, he added. Rui Feng was ostensibly required to do an environmental and social impact assessment evaluating how their investment would affect the local population.

“The government and the company joined together to violate human rights,” he said'.