Supporting Food Security: Indonesia-Cambodia Discuss Agricultural Cooperation

Thepresidentpost.id - Phnom Penh, Cambodia – The Indonesian Ambassador to the Kingdom of Cambodia, Santo Darmosumarto, held a meeting with Cambodian Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Dith Tina, last Friday (17/10) to discuss efforts to increase bilateral cooperation.

During the meeting, Ambassador Santo underlined the important role of agricultural cooperation in encouraging the strengthening of economic partnership and food security in both countries. Ambassador Santo welcomed the first shipment of Cambodian rice to Indonesia, which arrived at Tanjung Emas Port on November 2,  which hopefully can be a good start for the development of cooperation in this field.

Minister Dith invited SOEs and the Indonesian private sector to become part of the rice supply chain in the region by strengthening production capacity in Cambodia. This can be done through, among other things, investment in the construction of rice milling and drying. "Every year Cambodia exports 6 million tons of rice in the form of rice plants because it does not yet have adequate milling facilities," Minister Dith said. 

It was also conveyed that by investing in Cambodian agriculture, Indonesia would be able to maintain the price of rice produced by Cambodia to be more competitive.  Encouragement is needed for the private sector in this area to start discussions that lead to concrete cooperation. In addition to rice, Cambodia is also open to investment in other leading commodities such as cashews and pepper. 

Ambassador Santo expressed hope for partnerships in agriculture in the face of discrimination efforts made by several countries against agricultural products from Southeast Asia, such as palm oil. This kind of discriminatory treatment could have been applied to many other agricultural products, and had negative implications for countries such as Cambodia.

The meeting also discussed the implementation plan of the MoU on Agricultural Cooperation, which was signed when Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet visited Jakarta to attend the ASEAN Summit in September 2023. There is hope that Indonesia can provide education and training support to strengthen Cambodian human resources in agriculture.