RICE exports to European markets more than tripled over the first two months of 2011 compared to the same period last year, the Ministry of Commerce said yesterday.

In January and February, Cambodia shipped 10,495 tonnes of rice to Europe, a 228-percent jump from the 3,201 tonnes shipped during the same two months in 2009, according to official data.

The Kingdom earned revenues of US$8.5 million on the sales, up 250 percent from the year before.

Kong Putheara, director of the Commerce Ministry’s Department of  Statistics and Information, told The Post that the growth of rice exports to European markets this year has been the direct result of the ministry’s efforts to promote Cambodia’s crop.

“We hope that in the future Cambodian rice of standard quality can be exported more to the European market,” said Kong Putheara.

Loran Company director Lim Bun Heng said that Cambodia’s standard-quality rice is being broadly recognised across markets in Europe such as Poland, Germany, Italy and Portugal.

Loran has exported about 4,000 tonnes of rice to Europe so far this year, a significant increase over the 1,000 tonnes he sold in the same period in 2010. “We think that under the recognition [of Cambodia’s standard-quality rice] the company can have the capacity of exporting rice to European markets at not less than 10,000 tonnes this year,” Lim Bun Heng said.

In November 2009, the European Union opened its rice market, removing quotas and dropping the tax rate for developing countries like Cambodia to zero percent.