Mong Reththy Group (MRG), Cambodia’s largest exporter of palm oil, hopes to expand its exports to European markets this year.

Mong Reththy, president of the firm, said the quota-free and duty-free trade frameworks provided by European governments factored heavily into the decision.

“About 50 per cent of our total exports, which were worth about $27 million last year, went to European countries. They provided us with quota-free and duty-free access so that we can get $60 per tonne, compared with Malaysia or Thailand, which require us to pay tax. That is a great benefit,” he said.

“They are also encouraging us to export more because we are from a small country, so we receive a lot of support.”

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The Cambodian Center for Study and Development in Agriculture (CEDAC), an agricultural enterprise, exported 114 tonnes of organic jasmine rice to US in the first quarter of this year, a 30 per cent increase compared with the same period last year.

A representative of CEDAC said that this is a good sign and encouraging for farmers of organic rice.

“We aim to transform farmers into organic rice farm entrepreneurs or commercial organic fragrant rice producers,” CEDAC president Yang Saing Koma said. “We can generate extra funds for social development through the business with our international partners.”

During the first three months, CEDAC exported 59 tonnes of organic jasmine brown rice and 55 tonnes organic jasmine white rice to the US.

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Prior to 2013, Dom Dorn, a farmer in Phnom Sruoch district of Kampong Speu province, used oxen to farm his white-rice paddies; now, after just his second harvest of sowing phkarmalis (also known as jasmine or fragrant rice), he is using a kor yun, or hand-held motorised tractor to plant his seeds.

“The revenue from selling phkarmalis paddy has improved my family’s living conditions,” Dorn told the Post yesterday. “It is very easy to sell, and the price is good.” Traditionally sourced from Thailand, fragrant rice also flourishes in Cambodia’s climate and soil conditions, a fact that has led to a sharp rise in demand for the Kingdom’s product.

Data released yesterday from the Secretariat of One Window Service for Rice Export show that Cambodian rice exports for the first three months of 2013 amounted to 95,228 tonnes, already close to half of last year’s total exports, and almost three times the 36,430 tonnes exported in the same period of 2012.

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Thanks to seasonal demand, the price of rubber has increased from 2012’s year-end prices. But it was still slightly lower than at this time last year, a rubber-plantation owner said yesterday.

Mak Kimhong, president of the Cambodia Rubber Association and owner of the Chhop Rubber Plantation in Kampong Cham province, told the Post dried rubber prices had increased from about $2,700 a tonne in November and December to $3,100 a tonne this month.

Kimhong said it was common for the price to rise at this time of year, but it was still lower than in March, 2012.

“[International demand] always ups from February to April due to limited supply,” Kimhong said, but he was unable to account for why prices are lower than at this time last year.

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