Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – Indonesia has been recorded as importing rice from various countries, one of which is Thailand and Vietnam. Last year, for the first time in more than a decade, Indonesia also imported rice from Cambodia.
Even though Indonesia first signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) regarding rice trade cooperation with Cambodia in 2012, it was only implemented through initial imports with a total of 15 thousand tons of rice in 2023.
Talking about the opportunity to expand the Cambodian rice import market to Indonesia, the Indonesian Ambassador to Cambodia Santo Darmosumarto said the opportunity was actually very good, although there were several factors that were still problematic.
“Actually, the opportunity is very good,” said Santo when met by CNBC Indonesia in Jakarta on Tuesday (27/2/2024).
Santo said that in the last 8 years, Cambodia has won the award for the best rice in the world five times. “So, five awards in the last 8 years is good,” he said.
Even though Cambodia has quite a lot of rice stocks, in fact it is difficult to compete with Vietnam and Thailand for exports to Indonesia. One reason is because the price of Cambodian rice is much more expensive than Vietnam and Thailand.
“Well, we want to (import rice) again. We already have it from our side but it is still difficult because Cambodian rice is generally more expensive than other rice prices, such as Thailand and Vietnam,” he said.
Santo emphasized that the price of rice itself could be fluctuated if both parties carried out more extensive cooperation or reached out more widely to various regions.
“If we buy it and just focus on trading, it will probably be like that (the price),” he said.
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Photo: Workers prepare rice in the Pasar Minggu area, Jakarta, Tuesday, (27/2/2024). (CNBC Indonesia/Muhammad Sabki)
Workers prepare rice in the Pasar Minggu area, Jakarta, Tuesday, (27/2/2024). (CNBC Indonesia/Muhammad Sabki) |
“But if we focus on the possibility of long-term cooperation, investment, maybe that will open up opportunities for Indonesia to buy Cambodian rice at a more competitive price. So that is a consideration,” he said.
Santo further emphasized the potential to increase Cambodia-Indonesia cooperation through improvements that do not focus on buying and selling.
“(RI must) focus on the possibility of capacity-building (increasing capacity), the possibility of investing in rice mills (rice mills), storage, and also producing rice in Cambodia or the possibility of Indonesia to undertake countertrade (trade trade) with Cambodia for certain products that Cambodia needs. Well, that's what we need explore together in order to increase rice trade cooperation with Cambodia,” he explained
Price of Cambodian Rice and Premium Rice
Santo also explained that the price of rice in Cambodia varies, but he mentioned as an example the price of rice in Cambodia is around US$100 per ton more expensive than the price of rice offered by Thailand and Vietnam.
“At that price, it's not bad if you buy thousands of tons. At the same time, Indonesia doesn't just buy rice from Thailand and Vietnam, it also buys it from other sources,” he said.
With conditions like this, Santo also said that his party had tried several times to direct parties in Cambodia to focus on exporting premium rice, which is known for its high prices.
“Maybe there will be interest in Indonesia. So we don't sell regular rice, adjusted rice, but also premium rice. Maybe this could be of interest to Indonesia,” he said.
[Gambas:Video CNBC]
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(tfa/wur)