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Cambodia rice prices firm on tighter supply

PHNOM PENH: Cambodian rice prices were firmer this week and expected to continue upward on tighter supplies in the run-up to the dry-season harvest and high demand from neighbouring Vietnam and Thailand, trade sources said.

Paddy from the main May-December wet-season crop was now all out on the market and the smaller dry-season crop would not come in until next month.

"The price of rice this week has increased slightly compared with the last two weeks because...there's no more rice left to sell on the market," the head of the commerce ministry's food marketing office, Tes Eda, told Reuters.

The average price of paddy was 330,000 riel ($86.8) per tonne on Monday, compared with 320,000 riel per tonne over the previous two weeks, he said.

"The price of rice will be getting higher in the next couple of weeks, from 330,000 to 350,000 riel per tonne," he said.

Traders in the northwest said demand from Thailand was driving prices on the border up to as high as 340,000 riel per tonne, compared with less than 330,000 last week.

Similarly, on the Vietnam border in the southeast, traders reported firmer prices.

"Last week it was 370,000 riel per tonne, this week it will get up to 390,000 per tonne," a trader on the border with Vietnam told Reuters.

Traders were offering 370,000 riel per tonne for farmers' dry-season crop due in April, Tes Eda said.

The upcoming dry season harvest was expected to be 700,000 tonnes of paddy, compared with 636,000 tonnes last season, he said. -Reuters