Crop products and commodities

The state-owned bank entrusted with extending $27 million in emergency loans to millers to purchase rice paddy has marginally lowered the interest rate on these conditional loans in an effort to shorten some of the strings attached. The Rural Development Bank announced late on September 25 that ...

Only the IDP Rice Mill in Savannakhet province is able to produce rice of sufficient quality to meet the standard required by Chinese buyers. There are many rice mills around the country but they are inefficient and the finished product is of low quality. Based on ...

As the government scrambles to buoy a rice sector suffering from crashing paddy prices and fierce international competition, Prime Minister Hun Sen on September 22 lauded the government officials and “generous businesspeople” who heeded calls for emergency funds. Falling from about $250 per ton in mid-August to ...

Many people are wondering what the point of the quarantine station on the Thanaleng side of the Lao-Thai Friendship Bridge actually is, given that its spray station resembles a nursery water sprinkler. Ostensibly, the spray station, through which every vehicle entering Laos must pass, is to ...

Viet Nam hopes to export 1.6 million tonnes rice in the four remaining months of the year, raising exports for the year to 4.9 million tonnes, said the Viet Nam Food Association. According to a report the VFA tabled at a meeting held in southern An ...

The foreign sector continues to scoop up more of the market for consumer goods like ice cream, food, drinks, clothing, footwear, toiletries and household supplies, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade. At a recent business forum in Hanoi, Phan Chi Dung of the MOIT ...

A Vietnamese multi-sector conglomerate has announced it may sell nearly half of its massive rubber plantation stake in Laos to Chinese partners to deal with increasing debts and shrinking profits. The Vietnamese firm Hoang Anh Gia Lai is a major investor in Laos and operates a ...

The government-owned bank charged with issuing $27 million in emergency loans to rice millers as part of an initiative aimed at propping up the struggling rice industry announced the terms of the credit lines on September 19, and said it would ensure that the funds ...

Thailand, the world’s second largest sugar exporter after Brazil, is to overhaul its sugar production and distribution systems for the first time in more than three decades in order to avoid being challenged by Brazil at the World Trade Organization. The move is unlikely to make ...

Rice millers said on September 18 they welcomed the prime minister’s announcement that the government would make over $20 million in funds available shortly to support cash-strapped millers and prop up falling paddy prices.“We’ve been waiting for these loans for a long time like fish waiting ...