Ente Nazionale Risi (ENR), Italy’s national rice agency, has raised concern over increased European rice imports from countries such as Cambodia, according to rice industry publication Oryza.

ENR denounced the Everything But Arms (EBA) scheme, under which Cambodian rice exports receive preferential export status, saying that falling rice prices in the Kingdom, despite increasing exports to Europe, show that EBA terms benefit European traders and not farmers in Cambodia.

Previously, ENR opposed increased duty-free imports of rice from Cambodia and the region because of the negative effect it had on Italian rice production and sales.