State-owned rice miller Green Trade plans to export about 10,000 tonnes of milled rice to Libya this year, an insider has revealed.

Thon Virak, director of state-owned rice exporter Green Trade, told the Post yesterday that he had signed an export deal with a private company in Libya, adding that his company had already exported about 1,000 tonnes between January and February to the North African country.

“We are preparing to export more this month because we had already agreed to deliver about 5,000 tonnes. The market has quite a potential for us because there are not many restrictions,” he said.

Milled rice can be sold at $400 a tonne to Libya, and its market demands only 15 per cent broken rice, Virak said.

“It is good for us because we have a lot of this type of milled rice. We plan to export about 10,000 tonnes to Libya this year,” he said.

Last August, Green Trade signed a deal with Indonesia’s state-owned DULOG to supply 100,000 tonnes of milled rice per year. However, the rice was never exported. Thon Virak confirmed that both sides were in discussions to speed up the process.

“We reached a good deal because they want us to supply 300,000 tonnes a year, replacing the previous deal, at the price of $480 per tonne. We plan to export to DULOG this year but, due to a recent change of director, we are awaiting talks with the new director. Everything will be alright.”

Cambodia exported 187,119 tonnes of milled rice last year, according to data from the Ministry of Commerce.