On 10 December 2015, presiding over the ceremony to release final results of 2013 agriculture census of the Kingdom of Cambodia, Samdech Techo Hun Sen made public that the country attained its target of paddy rice production promotion, but not that of milled rice export. “We succeeded in boosting the paddy rice production plan by transforming Cambodia from a food importer to a country with some 5 million tons of paddy rice surplus or some 3 million tons of milled rice. However, the export target of one million tons of milled rice in 2015 cannot be realized yet as only about 500,000 tons or 50 percent of the target has been exported,” he said. Explaining what causes this failure, Samdech Techo Hun Sen reasoned that most investors overlooked Cambodia’s potential in rice production as it used to be a food importer, pointed out lack of investment in rice mills, rice storehouses and budget to buy rice from farmers, etc. The fact that there are many rice exporting countries, resulting in high competitions, is another reason. Nevertheless, Samdech Techo underlined that Cambodia has to maintain what it has on hand and continues to enhance capacity and help farmers reduce production costs.”
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