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.

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'.

Secrets

As much as I hoped that the Facebook page of Mekong Oryza Trading would carry a lot of Cambodian rice related news, the reality has been a little sketchy. Apparently not all snippets have been deemed postworthy and they have become more selective.
Especially when it comes to negatives in the trading practices itself. Where it usually takes just a bleep to post, it took 4 days to mention that the government is concerned about rice trading practices.

And what was said? 
Phnom Penh Post (May 4) mentions price fixing of agricultural produce:

'The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry said yesterday that they were investigating a possible secret agreement between middlemen or traders in the supply chain to manipulate the price of agriculture commodities, leaving farmers with no option but to sell their products at a lower price'. 

Reactions to this article suggest that government may also be part of the problem.

Response was swift, as the PM was reported (Phnom Penh Post, May 5) calling for government officials to stop meddling with trade deals at the expense of farmers:

'Prime Minister Hun Sen urged provincial governors yesterday to stop government officials from colluding with traders to fix agricultural commodity prices, giving farmers no choice but to sell their products at below-market rates'.

The Khmer exporters had earlier criticised the government for it's official practices: their own nations export procedures. The Phnom Penh Post (Apr. 23): 

'The executive committee of the Cambodia Rice Federation (CRF) will meet with two ministries today to explore the possibility of reducing the logistical and energy costs of transporting rice, a key factor to keeping Cambodian rice exports competitive compared to neighbouring countries, a CRF official said.

The meeting is being held with the Ministry of Public Works and Transport and the Ministry of Mines and Energy, said Kim Savuth, head of the CRF’s cost competitiveness executive committee. Savuth added that high energy and logistics costs were some of the main reasons why Cambodian rice remained more expensive than that of its neighbours'.

Motionless

There's little to suggest that world market price changes for rice are imminent, it still a buyers market with prices nudging southwards.

The Nation (May 11) has an article on how exporting nations are competing each other with lower prices, mostly achieved by devaluation of their currencies.

'He said that for every Bt1 the Thai currency weakens against the US dollar, the price of Thai rice drops by about $10 per tonne. 

Vietnam's decision to devalue its currency also cuts the price of its rice by about $3 a tonne'.

Thai stocks of rice are down but not by much. Oryzae.com (May 19) notes that 11 million tonnes remain in storage.

Bangkok Post (May 8) adds that Thailand regaining it's position as the world's biggest exporter may be on the back burner for the time being: 

'Thailand is unlikely to regain its crown as the world's largest rice exporter this year due to the slower-than-expected global economic recovery and a dearth of positive factors'.

Trade talks between Cambodia and China with Cambodia hoping to increase access to China for it's rice (Phnom Penh Post, May 22);

'“It is expected that there will be detailed discussion of Cambodia’s request to double the rice quota to China to 200,000 tonnes,” [Ministry of Commerce spokesman Ken Ratha] said, adding, however, that no agreement or memorandum of understanding is expected to be signed.

It doesn't seem to be China's interest. Phnom Penh Post (Apr. 13):

'China will increase its agricultural imports from Cambodia to include bananas, mango and soybeans, having already signed a food safety and health protocol for the import of corn last year, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

...

Srey Chanthy, independent economic analyst, said increased demand from the Chinese market coupled with sound agricultural policies can help address issues like lack of sustainable supply and low productivity among Cambodia’s farmers.

“It is an issue in the short term. But in the medium and long terms, if no proper strategies are in place, I am afraid that the issue is not only about higher volumes for export, but low productivity, seasonality and regularity of supply, lack of irrigation and efficient water use and management,” he said.

“For the growing season, it may not be problematic. But the problem is how to supply these products and export to China on regular basis throughout the year, with the amounts it demands. Issues are not related to only lack of irrigation and farming techniques, but also lack of farm labor,” he added'.

Meanwhile Vietnam are experiencing another form of trade terms with China. China is physically closing the market (tuiotrenews, Apr. 27): 

'Hundreds of trucks fully loaded with rice have stayed motionless in areas around different such ‘secondary’ border gates in the northern Vietnamese province of Lao Cai in the last ten days.

According to the Ban Quan border guard unit in Lao Cai’s Bao Thang District, Chinese buyers have stopped importing rice from Vietnam in the last two weeks because their authorities have tightened checks along the border'.

Vietnemnet (May 9) also notes how China wants Vietnams rice, but at lower prices:

'Rice exports to China across the border have been stagnant since the second half of April as China unexpectedly barred rice imports from Vietnam.

...

Professor Vo Tong Xuan, who is considered the leading Vietnamese rice expert, noted that despite great advantages, Vietnam still has difficulties in exporting rice to China.
According to Xuan, the majority of rice has been exported across the border by Vietnamese exporters even though they know cross-border exports cannot bring high profit. This is because they do not have to fill out many kinds of documents and do not have to pay tax'. 

Organic rice is reaching more markets. Phnom Penh Post (May 20): 

'Local rice exporter Amru Rice is close to signing an agreement with an American importer to bring Cambodian organic rice to the American market, according to the rice exporter’s chief executive'.

If Japan signs a new trade deal with the US, Thai rice exports to Japan will suffer (Bangkok Post, April 15):

'"As Japan wants its rice to be excluded from the tariff-elimination goal of the TPP, the government must come up with an alternative measure to improve foreign access to the Japanese rice market," said Mr Honma, who advised Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during his first term'. 

So if I understand correctly, if you want to protect your own market you'll need to give away concessions which mean that signee the USA would have preferred access at the cost of Thai rice?

Tales of future dreams. Dreams that were once true. For Burma. Bangkok Post (April 9):

'Dressed in Chelsea football shorts and a wide-brimmed hat, Than Tun toils away in his paddy field on the outskirts of Yangon, sweat pouring down his sinewy arms.

Gruelling work that once helped Myanmar become the world's largest rice exporter is today a Herculean and often lonely job for farmers striving to return the impoverished nation to its former grain prowess.

...

But rotting stocks, creaking infrastructure, heavily indebted farmers and minimal foreign investment are among the hurdles it faces.

...

Rice is a good poverty alleviation tool, he [Sergiy Zorya, a Bangkok-based expert on rice production at the World Bank] explains, because money actually filters down to poor farmers rather than resting in the hands of corporations or middlemen.

He points to Cambodia, which has heavily invested in improving rice production and exports. Over the past 10 year,s each one percent increase in GDP has resulted in reducing the country's poverty rate by 5.2%'.

Growth issues

Phnom Penh (May 19) Post has a long article on the use of glyphosate. 
Despite recent warnings on it's links to cancer (source), the article gives the yea sayers all the space in the articles conclusion:

'Lor Rasmey, spokesman for the ministry, also said yesterday he believed the herbicide to be of only minimal danger, explaining, “In France, they still use it.”

The argument mirrors that commonly used in the US, where as recently as 2010, glyphosate was referred to as a “miracle chemical for farmers”, according to the New York Times.

This language was also parroted in a bulletin for Cambodian farmers distributed by USAID in 2011, which states the “very low toxicity” of glyphosate and recommends it as an effective farming tool.

When asked if the agency would reconsider its endorsement, a spokesman yesterday referred to comments made by Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken on the situation in Colombia, who told El Tiempo: “I can tell you that glyphosate is used in all states of my country, and believe me, we’d have taken action if there was something wrong.”

Phnom Penh Post (Apr. 20). Cambodia's economy is expanding, but not for the poor where the lower price of rice is impeding investment. This despite misgivings that higher prices for rice are not good for the rural community, sometimes you can never win. An excerpt:

'The agriculture sector, one of Cambodia’s key growth drivers, remains the biggest worry for the World Bank, as a slowdown in the sector will have a ripple effect on poverty alleviation efforts.

“The agricultural sector has decelerated. This is the driver [of the economy] that has slowed the most and the reason is low yield and low rice prices,” said Enrique Aldaz-Carroll, senior country economist at the World Bank'.

Development watch

Cambodia's land policies are nothing to be proud, far from it. So it's no wonder that foreign investment in it's agricultural sector is lagging. One of the more upfront investors, Thailand's Mitr Pohl has announced that it will be pulling out of Cambodia (Phnom Penh Post, 11 May):

'Asia's largest sugar producer, Thailand’s Mitr Phol Sugar Corporation, has withdrawn from its three plantations in Oddar Meanchey province following years of criticism over alleged illegalities and human rights abuses at the concessions, a development watchdog has said.

The announcement itself was not confirmed, and oddly two days later it was in the press that the EU and Mitr Pohl were making

"good progress” towards finalising an agreement with the government over compensation claims made by thousands of villagers from Oddar Meanchey province who were evicted from their homes by Thai sugar giant Mitr Phol'.

But beyond rice there are alternatives. Phnom Penh Post (May 4):

'From January to May this year, more than 1,100 tonnes of longan were exported to China, up 63 per cent from the 676 tonnes last year, according to Sreng Sreang, deputy director of the Pailin Longan Farmers’ Community.

“There has been increasing demand for Pailin longan in the Chinese market, Chinese buyers tell me. They buy longan from us and do the packaging in Thailand before sending them to China,” he said.

Pailin longan is harvested from December to May. One kilogram of longan costs around 5,000 riel, or $1.25, almost a two-fold increase from three years ago when the price stood at $0.70'.

Investment in agribusiness (Phnom Penh Post, Apr. 30). Despite lower prices Mong Reththy company will provide investment in palm oil processing:

'As of February, Reththy’s company had 16,000 hectares of palm oil trees, 8,000 of which were ready for harvesting, with plans to extend the farm to 30,000 in the future.

Last year, the company exported 22,000 tonnes of crude palm oil, up from 19,000 tonnes in 2013. But price falls had significantly cut into the firms revenue'.

Where rice growing nations are having problems with raising prices, tactics to raise rubber prices seem to be having more effect. The Bangkok Post (May 29) notes:

'Rubber prices jumped the most in nine months as shrinking stockpiles in China and steps by the biggest producers to curb supplies bolstered speculation a global glut will dissipate.

The commodity surged 5.5% on the Shanghai Futures Exchange, the daily limit and the biggest gain since July for a most-active contract, to close at 14,195 yuan (US$2,288) a tonne. Prices are up 13% this month, the most since September 2012'. 

For the farmers sake let's hope the prices are gains in reality, but I suspect that this is just a minor hiccup: there's simply too much rubber waiting to be harvested, current prices are simply dissuading collection as they're not covering the costs of harvesting. Any sustained price movement upwards will see collection kick in again, cushioning any gain.

On the other hand, rubber prices going up are not all good news. The rubber bubble has exploded sometime ago (2 years?) and only now does the Thai government see fit to take action on protected forests being encroached on by rubber farmers (Bangkok Post, April 21) as they hausse for planting rubber seemed to indiscriminately target existing forests:

'With the blessing of the National Council for Peace and Order [read military junta], the Royal Forest Department intends over the next two years to seize back one million rai [50,000 ha] of former forest that has been encroached on, cleared and planted in rubber.

This one million rai is just one-quarter of the area of what was once forest reserve land that has been illegally taken over and planted in rubber trees'. 

So much for the protection of forests ...