Cambodia aims to sell more organic rice to international customers after exports of the grain rose over the past year.
The Cambodian Centre for Study and Development in Agriculture (Cedac), one of the country's two organic rice exporters, sold 540 tonnes of fragant organic rice last year, a 20% increase from 2013, and plans to double the figure this year.
''We are aiming to export 1,000 tonnes this year to fill the demand that we see in the international market,” Cedac official Sou Sarorn was quoted as saying in the Phnom Penh Post.
Its main buyers were Europe, the United States and Hong Kong and Mr Sarorn said Middle East countries could be a new target.
“The price of organic rice is higher and also more stable than non-organic rice in the marketplace,” Mr Sarorn said.
AMRU Rice, the other exporting firm on organic rice, was moving in the same direction, according to its CEO Song Saran, as the company has set an export target of 1,500 tonnes this year and 2,500 tonnes next year.
Cambodia exported 380,000 tonnes of rice last year, mostly non-organic rice. Main destinations for Cambodian regular rice was European countries, China and Malaysia.