Cambodia says Bangladesh keen on annual rice deals

Mon Jan 10, 2011 9:22am GMT
PHNOM PENH Jan 10 (Reuters)

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said on Monday that Bangladesh had offered to buy 200,000 tonnes of rice a year and that talks were resuming on exporting grain to Guinea.

Speaking at a university graduation ceremony in the capital, Phnom Penh, Hun Sen said talks were also continuing with the Philippines and Malaysia over rice exports.

“ I agreed to sell rice and send experts to Guinea but it was stopped by the coup d’etat there,” Hun Sen said. “ Now we want to resume.”

The West African state held elections in November after almost two years of military rule and a government is being put in place.

Cambodia has offered to sell 100,000 tonnes of rice a year to the Philippines, the world’s biggest rice buyer, but no deal has been reached yet.

Thon Virak, director general of state-owned rice exporter Green Trade, told Reuters the government had asked him to prepare for further talks with Bangladesh.

“ I’ve been told to prepare paperwork for further discussion,” Thon Virak said, adding that Guinea was looking for about 20,000 tonnes a year from Cambodia.

Cambodia introduced a policy last year to boost rice exports, including the development of a credit guarantee scheme.

It is targeting annual exports of 1 million tonnes within five years, a dramatic increase from the current volume of about 20,000 tonnes of milled rice. Much of its output goes over the border to Vietnam to be milled and then re-exported. (Reporting by Prak Chan Thul; Editing by Alan Raybould)