Thirty-four delegates from the Rice Merchants’ Association of Hong Kong made their first visit to Cambodia on Wednesday to explore more opportunities in the local milled rice sector.

David Van, deputy secretary general of the Alliance of Rice Producers and Exporters of Cambodia, said the point of the visit was to gather more information about boosting direct exports of jasmine rice to Hong Kong, instead of going through a third country.

“The main purpose is to get to know each other better,” he said. “There were reports that local companies mixed Vietnamese rice with Cambodian jasmine rice for export,” Van said, adding “that is why there is concern about the quality of our rice”.

Hong Kong only imports high-quality jasmine rice. In the first 11 months of this year, the administrative region imported 804 tonnes; ranking 32nd in terms of import volume.

In the same period, Cambodian rice exports reached 332,009 tonnes, a 93.7 per cent year-on-year increase.