Three new rice storage and drying facilities will be ready in July for the upcoming harvest season and will boost the sector’s capacity and export potential, even as the Ministry of Agriculture claimed the sector still needs more storage space to meet demand.
Constructed in Kampong Thom, Prey Veng and Takeo provinces, the facilities each have a capacity of 500,000 tonnes of raw paddy and are able to dry 1,500 tonnes of rice daily. The state-run Rural Development Bank (RDB) provided loans totalling $15 million to two companies, Khmer Food and Amru Rice for the construction of the storage spaces. The move was intended to alleviate stress on farmers and millers when stockpiles grow large during the harvest season.
Song Saran, CEO of Amru Rice, said that they received $5 million late last year to build the facility on 25,000 square metres of land in Kampong Thom province. The company also raised $3 million of its own capital to build an additional six warehouses on the plot.
“Now we are installing and testing, it will be ready for the next harvesting,” he said, noting that storage is playing an important role in reducing the flow of paddy to neighbouring countries for processing.
Kim Savuth, vice president of the Cambodia Rice Federation and CEO of Khmer Food, who received $10 million in RDB loans to build facilities in Prey Veng and Takeo provinces, also claimed that the rice storage and rice drying will be ready for the coming season.
“Our rice storage and drying is almost ready at 90 percent in Takeo province while in Prey Veng, it is set to finish as well,” he said. “We plan to handle paddy for the coming season, it will boost exports,” he said, adding that the construction of adequate storage and drying facilities was imperative if Cambodia’s rice sector hopes to compete internationally on price when dealing with government-to-government bids.
