Investors from Nigeria look to import Pursat rice
Investors from Nigeria look to import Pursat rice
A Nigerian investor is looking to directly export rice from Pursat province to the west African country, citing the quality of Cambodia’s milled rice.The investor’s representative, Mustapha Sammy Yaacob, the chief operating officer of SNZ Engineering Sdn Bhd, raised the subject at a meeting with Pursat provincial governor Mao Thonin on Sunday.
Nhong Chhay, the chairman of the board of directors at NC Construction and Development Co Ltd, who accompanied Yaacob, told The Post on Monday that Nigerian investors are currently visiting rice millers in Pursat with a view to buying rice for export.
He said that after the meeting, Yaacob is due to speak with other Nigerian investors on holding more detailed discussions with the rice millers.
“We will invite investors from Nigeria to visit Pursat province and talk with rice millers there. We have not yet set up a time for this, but we are sure it will happen,” Chhay said.
Cambodia Rice Federation (CRF) secretary-general Lun Yeng said that while Cambodia had exported milled rice to African countries in smaller volumes, Nigeria had yet to be a destination.
“It is good news for our rice sector as it will lead to a new market,” Yeng said.
Early this month, the visiting Sierra Leone ambassador to China, Ernest M Ndomahina, said his country was conducting studies into the possibility of importing Cambodian milled rice into Sierra Leone.
In the first 11 months of this year, Cambodia exported some 30,000 tonnes of rice to African countries such as Ghana, Gabon, Togo and Kenya, a CRF report said.
In the first 11 months of this year, rice exports to the international market totalled 514,149 tonnes, an official report stated. This was a 3.4 per cent increase on the same period last year, which stood at 497,240 tonnes.
China was the Kingdom’s leading export market in the first 11 months of this year, with 195,242 tonnes, while the EU imported 174,397 tonnes.
