[MENAFN.COM]
DUBAI, Sep 01, 2011 (Arab News) --Dubai is taking new steps to strengthen its role as a regional re-export hub for rice and other commodities.
With re-exports having almost doubled over the past five years, Dubai is now described as a
key re-export hub.
With advanced infrastructure, excellent connectivity, clusters of distributors and a strong base of regional and international logistics firms, Dubai remains a preferred destination for re-exporting to the whole region despite recent economic woes.
Dubai's exports head not only to the Middle East and Africa, but a great deal goes to South Asia as well.
It is against this scenario that Rice Dubai 2011 envisions Dubai to be a thriving re-export market for Cambodian rice exporters.
The founding committee of Rice Dubai 2011 is led by a top businessman in Dubai, Faisal Ali Mousa, who will lead a core delegation to Cambodia in the first week of September to explore the possibilities of the government entering the export market to impact positively the rice export market and rice re-export market from the UAE to the rest of the world.
Rice Dubai 2011 is an exhibition body by Dubai-based businessmen who have ventured out with the support of the Dubai Ministry of Foreign Trade to organize the first Rice Exhibition in the UAE.
The delegation will meet with Cambodia's Ministry of Commerce (MoC) key officials. Mousa says the delegation looks forward to meet with Seun Sotha, adviser, MoC, and Cham Prasidhi, senior minister of commerce of Cambodia.
Rice Dubai 2011 is a concept of exhibition, which is scheduled from Nov. 3-5 at Madinat Jumeirah, Dubai, to bring together global players from the rice producing and exporting markets to benchmark new business thoughts and impact effectively the reach of rice to its consuming markets.
The initiative could not have come at a better time, than now, when the world is screaming 'food crisis' or 'famine'.
The UAE is already the leading top re-exporter of rice in the world and its feasible logistical location on the world map as well as its very accommodating export-import trade laws makes re-export easy from Dubai ports.
Keeping with the need for rice exports to be increased from Cambodia, the government of Cambodia in 2010 axed its rice export licenses to exporters. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen issued a new order in this regard to replace an old order of 2008 and introduced the Green Trade Permit.
This initiative was taken to sell more than 200 tons of the grain.
According to International Business Times, agriculture is central to Cambodia's socio-economic development, contributing nearly 33 percent to the country's GDP.
Eighty-five percent of the population lives in rural areas and agriculture is the primary source of livelihood for the rural poor.
This sector has become stable and less dependent on natural changes because of the advances in irrigation scheme and application of agricultural technologies.
Cambodia has been successful with rice production during the last decade, producing 7.58 million tons in 2009, of which the country has another surplus of about 3.5 million tons for export.
Cambodia's rice cultivated area could be expanded up to 3.5 million hectares from 2.6 million hectares.
This could help the country reach a potential harvest of 12.25 million tons of rice.
The vision of the government of Cambodia is to transform the country into a rice basket making it a major rice exporting country in the global market.
In this regard, it has set the year 2015 as the target to achieve paddy surplus of more than four million tons and achieve rice export of at least one million tons.
The RGC has planned a number of programs and activities to increase rice production to make Cambodia one of the major rice exporting countries in the near future.
To address the climate change problem, Cambodia needs to increase its adaptive capacity to climate change and develop more climate resiliency programs.
Cambodia, rightly the size of Oklahoma, has a vast alluvial plain devoted to rice farming, according to the Cambodian Department of Agriculture.
Several major rivers, including the Mekong and Toni Sap, dissect this large lowland plain.
In Cambodia today, rice is the overwhelmingly predominant food crop being grown on an estimated 2.3 million hectares or nearly 85 percent of the country's total cultivating area.
The rice cultivators grown are incredibly diverse with crop scientists estimating there are over 3,000 varieties being cultivated in the country.
Government officials in Cambodia today are concentrating on the nation increasing its revenue through exports.
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