The funds are to be used to purchase nearly 300,000 tonnes of rice during the post-harvest season which begins next month.
State-owned Rural Development Bank (RDB) CEO Kao Thach told The Post that 15 private rice milling firms were granted loans to address the capital shortage in the sector.
RDB had allocated 40 per cent of $50 million in credit to the 15 firms as of Monday, Thach said.
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The funds are to be used to purchase nearly 300,000 tonnes of rice during the post-harvest season which begins at the beginning of next month, to fill domestic and international demand.
“The loans are to accommodate demand in the rice sector for capital. Some of the rice millers continue to submit proposals for loans but the data is still unavailable,” he said.
The additional loans come after the Cambodia Rice Federation (CRF) requested the government to provide $200 million in credit to rice millers in late November.
In early December, the Ministry of Economy and Finance allocated $50 million in funds to the RDB to be used as capital to buy additional rice stockpiles during the harvest season.
CRF vice-president Chan Sokheang said loan recipients will also use the funds to purchase “additional rice for grinding, processing and export to domestic and international markets”.
“Rice millers from some provinces where the harvest season has already passed, such as Takeo and Kampong Speu did not submit loan applications”, Sokheang said.
The Kingdom’s rice exports to international markets topped more than $286 million in the first 11 months of this year, the Ministry of Commerce’s annual report said.
The annual report also said rice exports to the international market totalled 514,149 tonnes in the first 11 months of the year, a 3.4 per cent increase from 497,240 tonnes during the same period last year.
China was the Kingdom’s leading export market during the period, accounting for 195,242 tonnes. The EU imported 174,397 tonnes and Asean 69,239 tonnes.
