In the first eight months of the year, Cambodian rice exports are tracking 23 percent below the same period last year, though non-rice exports have more than doubled in that time.
Heavy rain warnings remain in place after more than a week of flooding, leaving rice farmers increasingly anxious about their harvests — the longer their fields are flooded, the more likely their crops will be lost.
Farmers in Kampong Cham’s Batheay district say they are struggling to care for their crops after two years of intense drought and sparse rain, which is pushing more people to abandon their fields for factory work or jobs in the service industry.
The nation’s casino and rice industries are the latest sectors to face restrictions as part of the government’s response to Covid-19, leaving some casino workers worried about lost income and the rice sector largely unfazed.
The minor Grassroots Democratic Party (GDP) suggested increasing subsidized loans to rice millers to $100-200 million a year to help farmers struggling with depressed prices as they flood the market with millions of tons of surplus rice.
Prime Minister Hun Sen on Wednesday ordered government ministries to monitor rice millers to ensure that they used government-funded loans to help rice farmers profit rather than lower the price of rice, following the announcement of a $50-million government rice subsidy last week.
Rice exports to China have overtaken shipments to Europe this year after the E.U. imposed tariffs in January to protect its rice growers.
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