Indonesian Embassy Seeks to Increase RI-Cambodia Cooperation in Rice Sector

ANTARA

Indonesian Ambassador to Cambodia Santo Darmosumarto is seeking a more comprehensive cooperation in rice trade between the two countries.

According to him, Indonesia has wanted to import more rice from Cambodia, but is still constrained by the relatively higher price compared to rice from other countries such as Thailand and Vietnam – with the difference reaching around US$100 (around Rp1.5 million) per ton.

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“But the price of rice can be adjusted up and down from various factors, including through more extensive cooperation,” Santo told ANTARA on Tuesday night (Feb 27).

For this reason, he is focusing on exploring the possibility of long-term cooperation by inviting Indonesian investment to Cambodia.

Santo mentioned a number of possibilities for cooperation that do not only focus on buying and selling rice, including capacity building cooperation, Indonesian investment in rice mills and storage, and opportunities for Indonesia to countertrade certain products needed by Cambodia.

“These are things that we need to explore together to increase rice trade with Cambodia,” he said.

Increasing rice trade, according to him, could be one of the bridges to further enhance bilateral cooperation between Indonesia and Cambodia.

In addition, Santo also sought to balance the trade balance between the two countries, which recorded a huge surplus on Indonesia’s side.

Out of the US$1.1 billion (around Rp17.2 trillion) trade value between the two countries, around US$900 million (around Rp14 trillion) of it is Indonesia’s exports to Cambodia.

“In terms of this, it means that it is not healthy (trade conditions). If this continues, Cambodia is flooded with Indonesian products but they do not feel any attachment to their economic cooperation. In fact, to build cooperation in today’s modern world, economic-based cooperation is needed,” said Santo.

In order to increase rice trade, Santo also suggested to the Cambodian side to focus on selling premium rice that is known for its high price, which may have demand in Indonesia.

“I am sure that if Indonesians eat Cambodian rice, they will eventually want to eat Cambodian rice again because it tastes good. It’s a long-grained type of rice, tastes like Japanese rice but is not sticky,” he said.

He also explained that in the last eight years, Cambodia has won the award as the best rice in the world five times.

Indonesia and Cambodia signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on rice trade in 2012, but the cooperation was finally implemented last year with the first import of 15,000 tons of Cambodian rice.

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