CAMBODIA’S rice millers aim to collectively export 200,000 tonnes of rice next year, after Prime Minister Hun Sen announced policies earlier this month aimed at boosting production and exports to 1 million tonnes by 2015.

Mill owners will gather in Siem Reap on September 6 to discuss methods of increasing production to meet the target, according to the president of the Coalition of Cambodian Rice Miller Associations Phou Puy.

“With cooperation, we hope the rice export will increase by more than the government had planned,” he said.

According to Phou Puy, the meeting will provide a forum for millers to share expertise and best practices.

The 200,000 tonne export target will be reachable if rice mills cooperate, said Cambodian Centre for Study and Development in Agriculture President Yang Saing Koma.

Among the new policies unveiled by Hun Sen was a government commitment to guarantee 50 percent of loans extended from commercial banks to rice producers.