Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Cambodia uses Chinese loans to boost rice exports

PHNOM PENH, Feb 2 (Reuters) - Cambodia will spend $310 million of mostly Chinese money on improving irrigation systems to boost rice exports over the next two years, Prime Minister Hun Sen said on Tuesday.
Cambodia, which is forecast to export as much as 700,000 tonnes of unmilled rice this year, had the potential to produce bigger yields, but still needed more funding to upgrade its irrigation systems, Hun Sen said.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Cambodia exported 500,000 tonnes of rice in 2008, a figure dwarfed by neighbouring Thailand and Vietnam, the world's top two exporters of the grain.

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