Cambodia to sell rice to stop soaring price due to flooding

[XINHUA]

PHNOM PENH -- Cambodian government decided Saturday that it will begin selling its collected own rice to stop the soaring price as recently raised by opportunists due to flooding in the country.

Sun Kunthor, chairman of Cambodia's Rural Development Bank, said that at the order of Prime Minister Hun Sen, his bank in cooperation with Phnom Penh Municipality to allocate as much rice as possible to the markets in Phnom Penh with the price below the markets.

He said in recent days, the price of rice has been soaring up to about 630 U.S. dollars per ton these days from the original price at around 520 U.S dollar per ton.

Sun Kunthor said the government will "begin selling our own rice tomorrow (Sunday) with the price lower than 600 U.S. dollars per ton."

In a statement released Saturday by Phnom Penh Municipality, it said "The opportunists have hiked the rice price over the past several days amid the Kingdom of Cambodia is facing flooding."

Prime Minister Hun Sen announced Thursday that the flooding that has hit the country since August has killed 247 people while 190,000 hectares of rice fields have been damaged and more than 390,000 others inundated nationwide.