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History & Culture about Cambodian Rice

Rice has been grown for thousands of years in Cambodia, perhaps as far back as 5,000 BCE. Even before the rise of the mighty Khmer Empire in the 9th Century CE, the people of what we now call Cambodia used elaborate systems to irrigate their rice fields.

 During the Khmer Empire, which dominated the region for six centuries from its base outside the modern city of Siem Reap, sophisticated irrigation systems enabled the subjects of the God-Kings to cultivate as many as three or four crops in a year. Even as a French protectorate in the mid-19th Century, rice was central to Cambodia’s economy. It was during those years that Battambang Province was turned over to large rice plantations, and today this western province is still regarded as the Kingdom’s rice basket.

Cambodia under Prince Norodom Sihanouk embarked on extensive irrigation projects in some of the most populous provinces, including Kampong Cham and Kandal, to try and improve the rice yield in a nation of difficult rainfall patterns and relatively poor soil.

 As a consequence of thousands of years of cultivation Cambodia is fortunate enough to grow some of the most desirable rice varieties in the world. In 2012, 2013 and 2014, three years in a row, Cambodian fragrant (Jasmine) Rice won the “World’s Best Rice” award from the International Commodity Institute (ICI) at the annual World Rice conferences of ‘The Rice Trader’ (TRT). The God-Kings of the Khmer Empire would surely have regarded that as nothing more than what Cambodia deserves

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Export Statistics
by Metric Tons
Monthly 2021 2022 2023 2024
1. january 34.273 53.036 36.900 46.221
2. February 41.949 50.022 60.567 43.932
3. March 77.466 67.481 79.114 ---
4. April 38.807 50.599 38.740 ---
5. May 40.536 62.537 62.863 ---
6. June 47.419 43.525 51.449 ---
7. July 29.415 23.702 33.075 ---
8. August 33.582 38.098 38.991 ---
9. September 67.251 60.361 54.882 ---
10. October 49.471 59.888 73.343 ---
11. November 72.010 49.849 65.706 ---
12. December 84.890 77.906 60.693 ---
Yearly Export 617.069 637.004 656.323 90.153
MOT- Sources: Secretariat One Window Service
(SOWS-REF) for rice export.