Monday, December 12, 2016

New Certificate of Origin for Rice to EU

KHMER TIMES
SUM MANET



Rice producers and exporters to the European Union must use a new kind of certificate of origin beginning January 1.

“Producers or exporters who have been exporting rice to the EU are required to use a new type of Certificate of Origin for exports as the new online request has not been inserted into the ministry’s system,” a notice from the Commerce Ministry said.

The ministry could not be reached for comment yesterday.

The EU is one of the Kingdom’s major markets. Every product manufactured in Cambodia, excluding weapons, can be exported to the EU tariff-free.

Rice exports from Cambodia rose 3.3 percent in the first 10 months of the year to 421,000 tons of milled rice from 408,000 tons in the same period last year, according to data from the Ministry of Agriculture.

Song Saran, president of rice exporter Amru Rice (Cambodia), told Khmer Times that Cambodia would be able to comply with the requirement because the country has followed and implemented their demands in the past.

“When there is a requirement from the EU, we have to follow and practice it. If not, we cannot enter their markets,” he said.

“The EU is the main market for Cambodia. We export from 70 to 80 percent to the EU,” he added. “My company mostly exports rice to the EU and has exported about 40,000 tons of rice to the EU so far this year.”

Khan Kunthy, CEO of rice exporter BRICo, said his company as of October had exported about 6,000 tons of rice to international markets this year with his main markets being in Europe and the US.

“We produce only jasmine and fragrant rice. We are not interested in the Asean market because they consume white rice, except Malaysia,” he said.

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