Photo: Patrick Davenport at our stand, Hall 8, SIAL Paris.
538,000 tonnes. 542,000. 636,000. 626,000. 620,000. 691,000. 617,000. 637,000. 656,000. 646,000.
That is ten years of Cambodian rice exports, 2015 to 2024, off the agriculture ministry's own chart. The target, set in 2010, was a million tonnes a year by 2015. For a decade the country sat in the six hundreds and the million stayed out of reach.
Last year it jumped to 940,000.
This week it went through.
Chart: Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. 2026 figure counted to 19 October.
On Monday afternoon in Hall 8 at SIAL Paris, H.E. Cham Nimul, Minister of Commerce, and H.E. Dith Tina, Minister of Agriculture, walked the Cambodian pavilion and stopped at our stand, C016. With them was Kao Thach of the Agricultural and Rural Development Bank, the bank the Rice Federation credits with lending exporters the money to buy this year's paddy.
Photo: Ministry of Commerce.
On Tuesday the ministry posted the count. 1,014,442 tonnes, 1 January to 19 October. Prime Minister Hun Manet called it a moment of national pride.
On our counter that day: sample pouches, a stack of White King Elephant bags, and a brown panel headed "Nos riz · Our rice". Malys Angkor. Sen Kra Ob. Red jasmine. Berry rice. Glutinous rice.
Patrick Davenport, our director, did the rounds of the other halls in a krama. One photo has him at a Cambodian coffee stand, turning over a bag of Mondulkiri beans.
The numbers under the million are good ones. Volume up 67.5 percent to the end of August. Europe taking nearly a third. A new direct route putting rice in the Philippines in under a week.
Lay Chhun Hour, who leads the Rice Federation, said this week that the million was never meant as a one-year target.
Next year it has to happen again.
