Cambodia Offers Rice To Indonesia

Siem Riep, Cambodia, August 27 (ANTARA) - Cambodia has asked Indonesia to buy rice from that country and also invest in post-harvest business. Indonesian ambassador to Cambodia Soehardjono Sastromihardjo here on Monday said Cambodia`s prime minister Hun Sen made the request to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono during the ASEAN Summit in Bali last year. "I myself heard (prime minister) Hun Sen made directly to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono when they met at the ASESAN Summit in Bali last year," he said on the sidelines of ASEAN senior officials` meeting ahead of the 44th ASEAN Economic Ministers` Meeting here. Prime Minister Hun Sen is scheduled to open the ASEAN Economic Ministers` Meeting that would discuss trade and investment cooperation as well as food security. Indonesian trade minister Gita Wirjawan arrived here on Sunday for the meeting. Cambodia has been known as an agrarian country with 80 percent of its population are farmers. It produces 8.25 million tons of rice in 2011 and has set a target of exporting 180,000 tons of its rice this year. "Until 2015 Cambodia expects to export minimally one million tons of rice. The quality of its rice is good and it is also cheaper," Soehardjono who was also present at the meeting between prime minister Hun Sen and President Yudhoyono in Bali. Mohamad Helmi, the director of business development of PT Galuh Prabutrijaya that supplies fertilizers to Cambodia confirmed that the quality of Cambodia`s rice is not inferior compared to that of Vietnam and Thailand. "The price of Cambodia`s best quality rice is around US$450 per tons while that of Thailand is up to US$600 per ton," he said. Besides asking Indonesia to import rice from Cambodia prime minister Hun Sen has also asked Indonesian investors to invest in the post-harvest business,. "They do not have sufficient rice hulling facilities and therefore they have so far sent their unhulled rice to Vietnam and Thailand," he said. Cambodia has been targeting Europe and the US for its rice export markets and South Korea, China, Japan and Indonesia in the Asian markets. Cambodian daily The Phnom Penh at the end of March 2012 reported Cambodia`s plan to sign an agreement with Indonesia for the export of 20,000 tons of rice to Indonesia at a price f US$400 per ton. The president director of logistics company PT Bulog, Sutarto Alimoeso, has said that talks has been done since a year ago for the rice export plan but no agreement has been made yet. "We have been exploring rice imports from other countries with regard to preventing monopoly that could raise the price of rice," he said.