Page 49 - Regional_rice_report_with_full_bookmarks

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

as Ghana and Ivory Coast. China has also become a major trading partner of Viet Nam
in the past 5 years. Exports to Europe, the US, and Australia remain limited while they
are markets with high income per capita.

Unlike Thailand and Vietnam with a almost stable trend, both Cambodia and
Laos are witnessing a huge change in the market destination. Cambodia is witnessing
the decrease of EU 27 and increase of China. Although the import value of EU 27
decreased 5% in terms of money, the market share of EU 27 in the total exported
value of Cambodia decreased from 61% in 2015 to only 28% in 2020. This indicates the
increase of markets for Cambodia. The sharp drop in rice exports to the EU market is
due to a huge drop in demand for white rice as well as the safeguard measurement.
China, on the other hand, is an emerging trading partner for Cambodian rice as the
amount of rice export has been rising sharply in the last several years. Cambodia has
also witnessed a slight increase in Australia and other countries.

In 2020, China remains the main important partner for Lao PDR rice,
accounting for around 61% of the market share. However, quality management has
become a problem for Lao PDR to enter this market. Particularly, in 2015, Xuanye
(Lao) Company was approved as the sole exporter of rice to China with a quota of
8,000 tons, increasing to 50,000 tons in 2020, including both glutinous and non-
glutinous organic rice, drawing on the output of seven mills. However, the company
has not been able to fill the quota, supplying only 20,000 tons in 2020, largely due to
issues with quality (WFP, 2017).

On the other hand, ASEAN countries such as Viet Nam, and Thailand became
less important to the total imported of Lao PDR. These countries are witnessing the
fluctuation of rice exported, hence, reducing their import from Lao PDR for domestic
millers. However, Lao PDR has soon found its way to reducing the dependence on
ASEAN countries by gaining exporting to international markets such as EU27. Lao
PDR has exported 50 tons of rice to the European Union market, with Belgium
as the first purchase destination. According to a report by Socio-Economic Daily,
the Champahom Trading Import-Export Sole Co., Ltd has become one of the first
companies in Lao PDR to succeed in exporting rice to the European Union (EU).

2.3 Rice export potentials in high-value markets

High-value markets in this study are defined as the countries that are willing
to pay an average high price to buy rice (all varieties of rice) and have a sufficient
demand based on total import values to attract exporters. Based on official statistics
of Trademap, in 2020 there are 224 countries and territories officially importing rice
with an average value of USD 88.9 million per country. From the above criteria, the
high-value markets included for rice are the Middle East market (represented by
Kuwait), EU27, US, Japan, and Korea.

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