“Thai prime minister’s initiative to form the Organization of Rice Exporting Countries (OREC) is not the new idea for any one, but it is Hun Sen’s idea since 2005” prime minister Hun Sen at the graduation ceremony in Phnom Penh on May 5.

A group of five Asian countries proposed to create OREC similar to OPEC, compromised of Cambodia, Thailand, Lao, Vietnam and Burma in order to ensure the fair and good price and to help the food storage in the region and the world.

“The idea could be raise world food prices but will assist Cambodian farmers; he added that this is not just a good idea, but a good strategy to improve the price.” Kang Chandararot, executive director of the Cambodia Institute of Development Study was quoted by The Cambodia Daily.

According to the media’s report on Thursday, the Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej had agreed in principle to the formation of the OREC.

“The total of rice producing from five countries is approximately 15 million tons per year, Cambodia is exporting approximate 2 million tons. Vietnam and Thailand are approximate 6 and 9 million tons respectively per year but Burma and Lao have no specific figure.” Hen Sen said.

Yang Saing Kuma, director of CEDAC, was quoted by The Mekong Times as saying; he welcomed the OREC idea but warned the issue should be discussed in detail as OREC would be vastly different to OPEC.

“I think that it is difficult to set a common rice price because it will affect some mechanisms of the free market economy.” He said.

Prime minister Hun Sen used to suggest to form an association of rice exporting countries as Vietnam and Thailand during 2007 in order to strengthen the position of rice exporters as price soaring.

“The government needs to reduce the cost of producing rice and make Cambodian farmers more competitive before joining the group.” He added that “the government needs to encourage national production of fertilizer, pesticides, and farming equipment lover overhead costs.” SRP lawmaker Yim Sovann was quoted by the Cambodia Daily.

On April 24, Chan Sarun, minister of agriculture, said Cambodia would be able to produce eight million tons of rice for export annually by 2015, reported The Mekong Times.

Related posts: