Page 32 - Regional_rice_report_with_full_bookmarks

PROJECT “NETWORK FOR AGRICULTURE AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT
THINK-TAKS FOR COUNTRIES IN MEKONG-SUB REGION” (NARDT)

Table 10: Operation efficiency of rice mills in the countries

Viet Nam Lao PDR Cambodia Thailand

Number of rice mills 249,059 34,632 12,148 2,730

Running period, hours/ 4,855 N/A 1,944 5,400
year/mill
Exchange ratio (%) from
1 kg dry paddy to milled 66 60 64 66
rice in mills

Capacity utilization (%) 71 50 50 58

Source: The World Bank, 2016.

Reducing post-harvest losses during drying and storage stages could be
a sustainable way to increase food availability in the countries. It is estimated that
the rice post-harvest loss in target countries was typically 15-25% and this number
even could go up to 50% if the rice quality deteriorated after harvesting (Gummert,
2013). Although most paddy rice is still dried using traditional sun-drying methods,
wet paddy harvest requires an improvement in the drying system. In the Mekong
River Delta, more than 6,000 flat-bed dryers had been introduced into operation
with capacities ranging from 4 to 20 tons by 2012 (Gummert, 2013). It is reported
that hundreds of dryers were put into operation in Cambodia while highly efficient
blowers were also introduced to Lao PDR. Regarding storage, most farmers in target
countries are using barns and bags for rice protection. However, the humid tropical
conditions are constraints to keeping the dried grains and seeds safely. In Viet Nam,
freezers and cold storage are limited and only used to preserve crops but modern
storage by silo gradually becoming more popular. Farmers in Cambodia even have to
sell paddy rice right after harvesting due to the shortage of storage capacity.

The differences in post-harvest technology between Cambodia and Viet Nam
create a demand for cross-border trade to process Cambodian paddy in Viet Nam.
Cambodia lacks storage capacity therefore paddy rice is transported by bag or road
to Viet Nam for milling. Hundreds to thousands of tons of paddy rice from Cambodia
have been imported to Viet Nam per day in both formal and informal forms. With the
development and enhancement in technology, Viet Nam has the potential to become
the processing center for other countries such as Cambodia and Lao PDR.
1.2.4. Exporters

Viet Nam now has 207 rice export licensed enterprises (3/2021), the majority
of those are in the Mekong River Delta Region or have processing factories there.
Large enterprises, on average, have 3-4 rice processing factories, each with an average
area of 20,000m a reserve capacity of over 20,000 tons per factory, and annual
2,
processing results ranging from 35,000 to 40,000 tons per facility. The output of
these factories has been mainly used for direct exporters (60 to 70% of total output)
and entrusted exporters (about 20-30%) while only 10% of products used to serve

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