26 millers pass China test

KHMER TIMES
CHEA VANNAK

A rice miller inspects his ready-for-export grain. Only 26 millers in the country have met all the requirements to export to China. KT/Chor Sokunthea

Two rice millers, which had passed initial inspections, were deemed ineligible to export rice to China after failing quality and food hygiene tests applied by Chinese experts.

The number of rice millers eligible to export to China now stands at 26 after Chinese experts scratched two off a list of potential candidates, said Hean Vanhan, director-general of the Agriculture Ministry’s agriculture department yesterday.

Cambodia had submitted a list of 28 rice millers from more than 50 that had applied to export milled rice to China. After Chinese experts inspected the 28, they found that two rice millers did not meet their requirements in terms of sanitation and phyto-sanitation, Mr. Vanhan said.

“After they inspected all of the selected rice millers, they found that 26 passed this inspection, meaning that our assessment and the assessment made by Chinese experts is nearly the same. Only two failed the test,” he said.

Last month, a delegation of Chinese experts inspected the quality and safety at 28 rice mills during a week-long visit to Cambodia. All of the rice mills passed the initial quality and food hygiene tests.

In October, China doubled its quota of imported Cambodian milled rice to 200,000 tons per year, up from 100,000 tons in previous years.

According to Mr. Vanhan, the 26 selected rice mills will export milled rice to China from January 27.

Hun Lak, vice-president of the Cambodia Rice Federation (CRF), said that his organization does not set a quota for each rice mill and the total export amount for each rice mill depends on them finding a Chinese partner to export to the world’s most populous country.

“The CRF doesn’t set a quota for each rice mill. The amount of export depends on finding partners in China, so the rice mills can export a large amount,” Mr. Lak said.

He added that the reduction in the number of rice mills would not affect the ability to export the specified amount of milled rice to China.

“Last year, we were given only 100,000 tons per year to China but the amount of exports to China was over the quota, while the number of rice mills was just over 10,” Mr. Lak added. “So, we’re not worried about not being able to export the 200,000 tons per year to China.”

China was the biggest market for Cambodia’s milled rice in 2016, importing nearly 130,000 tons. Cambodia shipped a total of 540,000 tons to supply international markets.