PHNOM PENH, May 2 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia has an international obligation to participate in stabilizing global food prices, a senior official has declared, as the kingdom moves to join an OPEC-style rice cartel of five ASEAN Nations.
Food must remain affordable if Cambodia is to avoid a "price war" with neighboring countries, Khieu Kanharith, Cambodian Minister of Information and government spokesman, was quoted by the Mekong Times newspaper as saying on Friday.
Referring to recent reports about the formation of a so-called Organization of Rice Exporting Countries (OREC), a proposed price-fixing body similar to the OPEC, he said the issue would be discussed with rice producing nations.
"Because if we do not unite, the world would have a more serious rice market crisis," he added.
Media reported Thursday that Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej had said that Cambodia, Laos, Burma, Thailand and Vietnam need to band together and use their combined influence to exert more control over global rice prices.
Negotiations have not been scheduled so far between the countries but all five have tentatively agreed to join the rice cartel, Thon Virak, deputy director-general of the international trade department at the Cambodian Commerce Ministry, was quoted assaying in the Cambodia Daily newspaper.
The cartel could be expanded to include more ASEAN countries, he added.
The Cambodian government is preparing to conduct research on international rice prices and the possible functioning of the cartel, the newspaper said.
Meanwhile, Hang Chuon Naron, deputy secretary-general of the Finance Ministry, said the rice cartel idea was not new.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen had brought up the idea publicly last year, he said.
During a 2007 meeting with his Vietnamese counterpart in Phnom Penh, Hun Sen suggested rice exporting countries such as Vietnam and Thailand should form an association to strengthen the position of rice exporters as prices skyrocket.
The cartel would share market information and give each other assistance in producing rice, Hang Chuon Naron said, noting that stabilizing rice prices will add more security to the Cambodian agriculture sector and spawn more investment and growth.
"It will have no negative effect on Cambodian farmers," said Agriculture Minister Chan Sarun, who referred recently to Cambodian rice as the country's "white gold".
On April 24, Chan Sarun declared that the country would be able to produce eight million tons of rice for export annually by 2015.
Economic Institute of Cambodia President Sok Hach said the cartel will raise Cambodia's profile as an exporter, opening up its rice to more markets.
Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand last year exported a total of 16million tons of rice: Cambodia 1.5 million tons; Vietnam five million tons; and Thailand 9.5 million tons.
Thailand and Vietnam alone control more than 40 percent of world rice exports, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.
Current rice price nearly doubled that of last year in Cambodia, with global prices up from 512 U.S dollars per ton in January 2007to 998 U.S dollars by April 30, 2008.
Food must remain affordable if Cambodia is to avoid a "price war" with neighboring countries, Khieu Kanharith, Cambodian Minister of Information and government spokesman, was quoted by the Mekong Times newspaper as saying on Friday.
Referring to recent reports about the formation of a so-called Organization of Rice Exporting Countries (OREC), a proposed price-fixing body similar to the OPEC, he said the issue would be discussed with rice producing nations.
"Because if we do not unite, the world would have a more serious rice market crisis," he added.
Media reported Thursday that Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej had said that Cambodia, Laos, Burma, Thailand and Vietnam need to band together and use their combined influence to exert more control over global rice prices.
Negotiations have not been scheduled so far between the countries but all five have tentatively agreed to join the rice cartel, Thon Virak, deputy director-general of the international trade department at the Cambodian Commerce Ministry, was quoted assaying in the Cambodia Daily newspaper.
The cartel could be expanded to include more ASEAN countries, he added.
The Cambodian government is preparing to conduct research on international rice prices and the possible functioning of the cartel, the newspaper said.
Meanwhile, Hang Chuon Naron, deputy secretary-general of the Finance Ministry, said the rice cartel idea was not new.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen had brought up the idea publicly last year, he said.
During a 2007 meeting with his Vietnamese counterpart in Phnom Penh, Hun Sen suggested rice exporting countries such as Vietnam and Thailand should form an association to strengthen the position of rice exporters as prices skyrocket.
The cartel would share market information and give each other assistance in producing rice, Hang Chuon Naron said, noting that stabilizing rice prices will add more security to the Cambodian agriculture sector and spawn more investment and growth.
"It will have no negative effect on Cambodian farmers," said Agriculture Minister Chan Sarun, who referred recently to Cambodian rice as the country's "white gold".
On April 24, Chan Sarun declared that the country would be able to produce eight million tons of rice for export annually by 2015.
Economic Institute of Cambodia President Sok Hach said the cartel will raise Cambodia's profile as an exporter, opening up its rice to more markets.
Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand last year exported a total of 16million tons of rice: Cambodia 1.5 million tons; Vietnam five million tons; and Thailand 9.5 million tons.
Thailand and Vietnam alone control more than 40 percent of world rice exports, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.
Current rice price nearly doubled that of last year in Cambodia, with global prices up from 512 U.S dollars per ton in January 2007to 998 U.S dollars by April 30, 2008.
9 comments:
According to world statistics, in 2006, the average rice yield in Cambodia was 2.49 tonnes per hectare while in in Asia it was 4.17 tonnes.
If Cambodia can catch with that avrage in Asia, how much it would be better off? And why can't it catch up? Great potential in the agricultural sector!
It has also great potential in other sectors of the economy. For instance, it has a lot of unused or under-used human resources. The productivity of these resources are still very low. How much potential can Cambodia have if these resoures are fully used and their productivity is much higher? Why can't they be fully used and their productivity be higher?
LAO Mong Hay, Hong Kong
Dr Lao, Cambodia needs more times to catch up with productivity of other Asian countries. Keep in mind that other Asian nations did not got destroyed by war. At any rate, water management is the key to agriculture, and until we are done with reservoirs and canals constructions, our productivity will be less than other Asian countries. However, at 2.49 tons per hectare current standing is still a huge improvement over the decades. You can only do so much with what you got to work with.
Mr.2:23PM,
Which war did you refer to? I have seen with my own eyes that many of the irrigation projects that had been built under the Khmer Rouge regime (with the blood of the Khmer people) were just abandoned, neglected, after its overthrow, not destroyed by war. Look at the big reservoirs called Ang Komping Ouy near Battambang city, Trapeang Thmar in Phnom Srok district, Banteay Meanchey province, Ang Cheung Kruos in Thmar Puok district, Banteay Meanchey province.
Samdech Hun Sen rehabilitated the Kraing Yov irrigation system (Khmer Rouge), but he abandoned it in 1998, unfortunately.
I personally participated in the rehabilitation of a flood-prevention dyke built by my fellow viallgers under the Khmer Rouge in my native village. As in the Khmer Rouge times, my fellow villagers have since been able to grow crops 12 months a year, instead of only 8 months prior to the rehabilitation. They are now better off. Actually, they had initiated that rehabilitation project, each contributed to it, and depended only a little bit on aid from outside.
All the irrigation projects built under the Khmer Rouge should have utilised and maintained after the Khmer Rouge overthrow. But this would have legitimised the Khmer Rouge agricultural policy, which our "liberators" despise. And Vietam did not seem to help either. How many experts did it send to help develop our agriculture during its 10 years of occuption of Cambodia? How many of our students were sent abroad to acquire expertise in agricultural development? Where are they now?
We have rehabilitated a lot of roads, but where are the home-grown produce to transport?
Is agriculture now our production base? If so, our Industry Ministry, Commerce Ministry and our Foreign Ministry need to develop a strategy to develop agro-business and find markets for our farm produce.
If I were prime minister, I would appoint a deputy prime minister to coordinate the work of all these ministries to develop such a strategy and win markets abroad for our farmers. I would appoint diplomats with business background and assess their performance on their success in finding such markets. I would merge the Commerce and Foreign Ministries into a single Ministry International Relations and Trade.
LAO Mong Hay, Hong Kong
PS: Hong Kong is the world's third largest financial centre after New Nork and London. Its prosperity is based on shipping, trade and financial services.
Dr. Lao, I was talking about the Civil War and the Vietnam liberation war. There were lot of bombing and shooting going on. No one dare to do any work out in the field while all that going on. Hadn't those wars taken place, Cambodia productivity will not be second to anyone on this planet.
Furthermore, as you implied, because people had been abused by the Khmer Rouge in the field, it is immoral to have them back in the field to continue to do farm work, not to mention excessive dangerous land mines all over the place. Therefore, we can't really move as fast as we wanted too even if we could, and we need more canals and reservoirs. We can't lives on the same number of canals and reservoirs while the population exploding.
And yes, we also need roads, electricity as well, and we can't only do so much with little budget at our disposal, and in our case, we were focusing on developing the city and infrastructures first, but now we just started to shift our resources to developing our rural area. If you look around KI media, there should be an article about our plan to make Cambodia a major rice exporter by 2015.
And last but not least, I appreciate you plan to put various ministry to works on various projects, but to be practical about it, you must also considered the side of the budget at your disposal. At any rate, there weren't much severe complaints about our growth in agriculture from World Bank, ADB, nor IMF. Accordingly, I believe Cambodia is doing pretty well overall.
Totally agree with Dr. Lao.
It's really a shame when someone says "Great job! I have made 10 progressions!" while that guy could have made 100 progressions!
Nope, no one on the planet could do 100% in such short time. Vietnam, the 2nd fastest growing country in the world is only about 30% better than Cambodia, and they did not suffer destruction from the Khmer Rouge.
It's best for the Viet-born Parasite @8:20 AM to just get off of Khmer blog now!
Go home Vietcong, Go home!
Khmer needs no Vietcong on Khmer land!
Yes, we do need Vietcong for protection from Ah Khmer-Yuon murderers.
Nope, a good Vietcong is a dead Vietcong already. So you Viet parasite @11:42 AM must head on home...and let's see tail between your legs now..Damn Viet parasite...
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