The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries released on Tuesday a list of Cambodia’s top 10 exporters of milled rice for 2012 — a move experts called a promising sign of increasing transparency and competition in the industry.

Those 10 exporters were among the 71 milled-rice companies that exported a total of 205,717 tonnes last year, according to data released by the ministry’s Single-Window Secretariat for Facilitating Milled Rice Export.

“It is good to know how much each company exported,” Mey Kalyan, senior adviser at the Supreme National Economic Council and a co-writer of the country’s rice exports policy, said.

“The leading companies will be proud and satisfied with their achievement, while the less competitive will try harder to improve their position,” Kalyan said.

Khmer Food is the largest milled-rice exporter in the Kingdom, according to the data, with a total of 31,441 tonnes exported, accounting for about 15 per cent of the country’s total production  last year.

Khmer Food president Kim Savuth said he was not surprised by his company’s place in the rankings, even though it had failed to meet its own goal of exporting 40,000 tonnes.

“I will try to boost my productivity, and I believe others will also do so,” Savuth said, adding: “The government’s export goal of one million tonnes is still far off”.

Golden Rice (Cambodia), in second place, exported 26,071 tonnes, 92 per cent of which was fragrant rice.

Baitang (Kampuchea) was the third-largest exporter with 24,213 tonnes, 12 per cent of the country’s total.

Fourth place in the rankings was taken by AMRU Rice (Cambodia), which exported 16,156 tonnes.

International Rice Trading ranked fifth with 15,450 tonnes.