Thailand’s Commerce Ministry projects the nation will ship 8.5 million tons of rice in 2013, up about 22% from about 7 million tons shipped last year, according to comments made at a press release for the upcoming Thailand Rice Convention 2013. Thailand rice exports have been hit by both high Thailand paddy prices from the government’s rice mortgage scheme, a strong baht, and India’s reentry to the global rice export market.... More »

The Philippines paddy production during January - March 2013 has reached around 4.17 million tons, up about 4.45% from around 3.99 million tons produced in the same period last year, the Agriculture Secretary said today citing preliminary data from the Bureau of Agriculture Statistics (BAS).... More »

The Philippines has become a rice exporter once again after decades, shipping around 35 tons of fancy rice (15 tons of organic black rice and 20 tons of aromatic long grain rice) to Dubai on May 6, 2013, according to the Philippines Rice Research Institute (PhilRice).... More »

Following a considerable increase in Cambodia’s milled rice exports in the first four months of the year, Minister of Commerce Cham Prasidh said he was optimistic the Kingdom’s rice exports would reach the 2015 target of one million tonnes.... More »

Major financial institutions show more trust in providing loans to the agricultural sector, evidenced by increasing agricultural loan disbursement, thanks to potential growth in the sector and better preparation of financial report among borrowers, according to industry insiders.... More »

India is expected to become the world’s largest rice exporter for the second consecutive year in 2013, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) which revised upward India’s 2013 rice export forecast to around 8.3 million tons, up about 10% from January estimates of around 7.5 million tons.... More »

Thailand’s paddy rice production is likely to drop to around 37.4 million tons in 2013-14 due to droughts, down about 3.6% from an estimated 38.8 million tons in the previous year, an official of the Agriculture Ministry told local sources today.... More »

Vietnam’s rice exporters have signed contracts to sell around 4.23 million tons in 2013 during January to April 2013, up almost 10% from the same period last year, according to the Vietnam Food Association (VFA).... More »

Commerce Minister Boonsong Teriyapirom has blamed the soaring baht for hampering government-to-government (G-to-G) rice export deals.... More »

Cambodia shipped 118,504 tons of rice January-April 2013, according to official data from the Secretariat of One Window Service for Rice Export Formality (SOWS-REF); that’s up about 130% from the same period last year.... More »

Building an industry based on a uniquely Cambodian standard will give rice producers a clear target to work towards and instil confidence in buyers, said a panel of both government and private sector representatives at a rice quality workshop in Phnom Penh on Tuesday.... More »

To enhance Cambodian rice yields, the government should encourage private development of rice-seed production and focus its efforts on farmers’ education and regulations that ensure the quality of seed, industry experts say.... More »

U.S. news media reports that Thailand rice exporters are buying and selling at least 300,000 tons of rice from Cambodia, Vietnam, and Pakistan each month due to the high price of Thai paddy on account of the Thailand rice mortgage scheme.... More »

A lawyer at the Brussels-based CropLife International (CropLife) has claimed that farmers in Thailand and Vietnam use banned chemicals in rice cultivation. He told local sources in the Philippines that counterfeit products used on rice in Thailand and Vietnam may not have the required safety standards and could pose a health hazard to consumers.... More »

Cambodia’s first-ever agricultural census is under way, tasked with addressing the lack of reliable statistical information on one of the Kingdom’s most crucial economic sectors.... More »

The government has vowed to sell 6-7 million tonnes of its rice stocks this year, but rice exporters are again questioning the viability.... More »

Rice-milling factory Penh Chet, located in Cheung Prey district in Kampong Cham province, burned to the ground after a fire broke out on Friday night and continued into early Saturday morning.... More »

The Cambodian Center for Study and Development in Agriculture (CEDAC), an agricultural enterprise, exported 114 tonnes of organic jasmine rice to US in the first quarter of this year, a 30 per cent increase compared with the same period last year.... More »

The Philippines inked a deal to import rice from Cambodia for the next two years, according to a statement on the Philippines Department of Foreign Affairs website.... More »

The Philippines and Cambodia have signed an agreement to increase rice trade between the two countries in the next two years, according to local sources. The Philippines Department of Agriculture (DA) said that the agreement will allow the National Food Authority (NFA) to import rice from Cambodia for the next two years through the Cambodian public enterprise Green Trade. A similar agreement was planned between the two countries last year, but could not be finalized after Cambodia reportedly delayed a decision to lower prices to levels the Philippines was demanding.... More »