New restrictions aim to curb rice imports
Cambodia’s Ministry of Economy and Finance announced on 27 June that the government will block all illegal rice imports at its borders and limit legal rice shipments from Vietnam based on production cost. As part of the new regime, only milled rice with a production cost of $300 to $600 per tonne can legally be imported from Vietnam. The goal, according to the ministry, is to eliminate cheap Vietnamese rice that sells for $200 or less per tonne from the Cambodian market. “This mechanism will control the flood of rice imports from Vietnam as well as rice smuggling,” Moul Sarith, secretary-general of the Cambodian Rice Federation said on 28 June. “It will also control the quality rice in the market.”
