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Wafers Made From Hill Area Rice Set To Expand Overseas

(Phnom Penh Post: September 22, 2021)

Local rice miller and exporter Amru Rice (Cambodia) Co Ltd is looking for distributors and importers based in Australia, France, the US and UK for edible organic rice paper sheets made from ingredients sourced from small-scale farmers in the hilly regions of north and northeastern Cambodia.

The rice wafers – called “banh trang” in Vietnamese and “sambak nem”, “kuy teav moul”, among other names in Khmer – is steamed rice dough that is cut into thin slices and then typically sun-dried. They are traditionally used to make spring rolls and other regional finger-food favourites.

Amru CEO Song Saran told The Post that the company recently rolled out the product, determined to lift up smallholder farmers living in the remote hilly areas of Preah Vihear and Mondulkiri provinces – some of them from ethnic minority backgrounds – and guarantee them adequate incomes to support their families.

The initiative envisages to support local products and link poor producers into the supply chain, based on the credo that “no one be left unattended”, he said.

He posited that growers who follow organic standards will encourage companies to enter into partnerships with them, thereby moving a step closer towards securing a decent income and procuring a comfortable livelihood.

In an invitation to the general public, Saran said: “Your support in buying this product [rice paper] will help to improve the lives of smallholder farmers, especially the ethnic minority ones.”

Orders for Amru’s organic rice sheets are piling up in Denmark and the Netherlands, he enthused, adding that the company was looking for partners to tackle the Australian, French, US and UK markets, where he said consumer demand is strong. Germany too appears to be firmly in his sights.

“We strive to produce rice paper that meets the organic standards of EU and US specifications, and we have the capacity to do so,” Saran said. “We’ve just recently developed these wafers, which are tasty, high quality and up to standards, and are able to compete on the market.”https://26fca78b49cbebd3422fd6463ec5a8af.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html

Amru has reportedly shipped 20 tonnes of the organic wafers to Denmark and the Netherlands over the past eight months, and is ramping up production to fulfil orders there.

The company says it is on track to export about 40 tonnes this year, and has affirmed its commitment to boost exports of natural Cambodian products.

The rice sheets have also seen a significant level of interest and support from Cambodians, which the firm greets as a welcome trend.

IBAN – Impact Story of Amru Rice

(InclusiveBusiness.net: September 2021)

Amru Rice re-invented contract farming in the Cambodian rice sector. By strengthening cooperatives and offering training on organic farming, it has helped smallholder farmers from poor provinces draw even with their peers in wealthier parts of the country. Today, Amru Rice is among the largest exporters of organic rice from Cambodia.

THE TEAM

To start, can you briefly introduce yourself?

My name is Saran Song. In 2012, my wife and I founded Amru Rice to help smallholder farmers escape poverty in Cambodia. Now, I am the Chief Executive Officer of the company.

Why did you found Amru Rice?

My own family was poor after the civil war. I worked for NGOs to support people like them. Then, in 2010, the Cambodian government issued a series of policy measures to incentivise commercial rice farming. I believe that the private sector should create livelihoods for poor people, so I took the opportunity.

INCLUSIVE BUSINESS APPROACH

What does Amru Rice do?

We started as a trading company with three or four employees. Now, we are vertically integrated and have become the largest producer and exporter of certified organic rice in Cambodia.

How does your business model include smallholder farmers?

We reactivated contract farming in Cambodia. To source rice, we work closely with agriculture cooperatives, whose members are smallholder farmers. Farming contracts guarantee them higher incomes.

IMPACT

What is the special value you create for smallholder farmers?

We only work in poor provinces, where farmers lack financial resources, capacity, and market access. Over the last ten years, we have helped them draw even with farmers from wealthier provinces. They earn the same income, and buyers acknowledge the quality of their products.

What are you doing to help farmers draw even?

We pay them a premium for organic rice: twenty to forty percent on top of the market price, depending on quality.

Through trainings, our contract farmers have also been able to increase their yield while reducing input costs. In 2013, they produced about one ton of rice per hectare. Since then, this has more than doubled, and they are using only half as much seed.

Some cooperatives also produce organic cassava and cashew nuts to diversify farmer incomes. We buy these products through our sister company and export them to Vietnam and the Netherlands.

How do you cooperate with other actors?

We partner with NGOs, the provincial department of agriculture, and development organisations. NGOs have supported us in raising awareness for cooperatives, which, in turn, help organise the sector and increase farmers’ bargaining power with input providers. We also cooperate on things like financial literacy trainings, women’s empowerment programmes, and the protection of biodiversity.

How many smallholder farmers do you work with?

When we started contract farming in 2013, we worked with 500 smallholder farmers. Now, we represent nearly eighty per cent of contract farming in the Cambodian rice sector, working with 10,000 farmers. About fifty-five per cent of them are women, including many leaders of cooperatives. Other companies are replicating our model, but on a smaller scale.

How do you measure the impact you create?

We collect data on crop production and compliance with organic standards. In addition, we measure the income increase of individual contract farmers. To collect all these metrics, we conduct Snapchat surveys among the farmers we are working with. In addition, we have partnered with Oxfam to pilot a blockchain-based tool for our organic rice farmers.

THE INCLUSIVE BUSINESS MODEL

What makes your business model viable?

As demand for organic food grows, Amru has developed a reputation for supplying high quality rice for consumption and manufacturers. This demand creates more profits and opportunities for growers.

Where do you market your products?

We exported about 10,000 metric tons of organic rice last year. Most of it went overseas, mostly to Europe. To avoid heavy competition, we also serve niche buyers like baby food manufacturers. All our business is B2B.

What’s the annual revenue of Amru Rice?

Our total annual revenue is about USD 40 million. About one third of it is derived from organic rice produced by contract farmers. For the rest, we purchase conventional rice from millers and traders.

Do you receive any support from outside the company?

We have received technical grants from different impact lenders and multilateral funders like Agence Française de Développement (AFD), United States Agency for International Development (USAID), SNV Netherlands, and responsAbility.

FUTURE OPPORTUNITIES

What are your plans for the next few years?

We want to double the number of contract farmers by 2022. If the pandemic hadn’t stopped us, we would have done so earlier.

How will you reach these numbers?

We need to inform more communities about our model and teach them about organic farming. In addition, we need to further diversify the market and find importers that are willing to pay for the impact we create. To reach these markets, we will invest in new equipment and improve our branding.

What do you need to realise these plans?

We would like to partner with more importers and financial institutions. Right now, we are not looking for additional investment, but this may change when the pandemic is over.

CHALLENGES AND LEARNINGS

What challenges have you already overcome?

We invested a lot when we started contract farming. The supply chain was scattered, and trust was low, so we coordinated with many different players – cooperatives, NGOs, and government institutions – to build capacity and trust.

The biggest challenge, however, was the Covid-19 pandemic. We couldn’t move around to visit clients, logistics were disrupted, and many customers had to close their businesses. The farmers, too, were struggling to support their families. We sold rice at low cost to the local market or even donated it. Luckily, some of our partners have opened for business again and even agreed to pay in advance to support the farmers. We will resume shipments in October at the latest.

What inspires you to keep going despite these challenges?

I spent a lot of time working with NGOs to support vulnerable groups. This has shaped my core values. I have learned that trust can be built when we are able to listen and understand each other.

What advice do you have for other companies?

Entrepreneurs need to decide whether they really want to make an impact on the community they are operating in, and what they want to focus on. This commitment must come from the heart and translate into a core operating philosophy for the business.

Read the whole impact story : https://www.inclusivebusiness.net/impact-story/amru-rice

Kingdom’s Largest Rice Exporter Leads Farmers In Diversifying Crops

(Khmer Times: September 01, 2021)

Amru Rice, Cambodia’s largest producer and exporter of the grain, is working with its farmers to diversify beyond the country’s largest agriculture product and grow other foodstuffs, including black pepper, cassava and cashews.

Chief Executive Officer Song Saran told an international trade organisation that he is working with farmers to increase their skills so their financial stability is not tied to fluctuating rice prices.

“If another crisis comes in the next 4 to 5 years I think we will be more prepared, because I believe in my supply chain. At the moment we are not yet at our peak. For example, other countries can produce 3 to 4 tonnes of rice per hectare, but we can only do 2 or 2.5 tonnes per hectare,” Saran told Enhanced integrated Framework (IEF).

IEF provides trade assistance to least-developed countries by fostering an understanding of global trade frameworks.

Amru Rice has more than 10,000 contract farmers who exported more than 322,000 tonnes of milled rice to 30 countries between 2013 and 2019.

The same year, Italy argued that tariffs should be imposed on Cambodian white rice imports to the EU. At the time, shipments to the EU accounted for 32 percent of the Kingdom’s rice exports.

As a result, the price for the grain fell drastically. Some farmers said they were earning $60 less per tonne for the crop, which is engrained in the culture of Cambodia.

The public and private sectors soon set to work to scout new markets to export their goods and their efforts were rewarded with commodity prices beginning to rise before the pandemic.

But as Coronavirus continues to shred through the global economy, the rice sector has taken another step back. Many local restaurants are closed and international buyers are in short supply.

“For me, it’s grappling with how I can promote and sell more rice. The big disruption for me at the moment is freight. Shipping lines have increased their prices. The cost for a container has gone up three or four times and this has a big impact on income,” said Saran, who is also the president of the Cambodia Rice Federation.

Now, Amru Rice is hard at work to prevent similar negative effects on the industry. The firm is working closely with the Ministry of Agriculture and cooperative farmers to grow organic rice, which fetches a higher price in the open market.

Organic rice now accounts for 50 percent of the firm’s business as the number of provinces promising to exclusively grow chemical-free products continues to grow.

Cambodian rice farmers have been encouraged to diversify their crops for years and grow higher-value, drought-resistant and in-demand products such as lentils and beans instead.

Earlier this year, the Indian embassy in Phnom Penh signed a memorandum of understanding with the Cambodia Pepper and Spice Federation for duty-free exports of black pepper and turmeric.

In Cambodia, Going With The (Rice) Grain

Trade for Development News by EIF: July 06, 2021

Resilience is necessary in the rice trade, developing it requires many

About 80% of Cambodians are rural farmers, and rice is the country’s main crop. But, until the last decade or so, the sector had not been living up to its potential.

Doing so would mean more productive harvests, better incomes for impoverished farmers, more local businesses involved in exporting and greater competitiveness in the global rice marketplace. The country is now seeing success cultivating this potential, which has involved government strategy and planning, international support and the resourcefulness of locals.

“Our rice farmers face difficulties with having sufficient irrigation systems, fertilizers and safe pesticides. After harvesting, they face issues with knowing market prices and bringing their products to potential markets. And they are heavily dependent on the collectors and domestic buyers,” said Deputy Director General for International Trade Kemvichet Long.

For local exporters, challenges include an irregular supply, the logistics of getting rice to destination markets and meeting required international sanitary and phytosanitary measures, Long said.

Amru Rice offers one example of how some of these challenges can be addressed. The Cambodian enterprise was founded in 2011 to trade in rice, at a time when Cambodia and the European Union had agreed to the Everything But Arms initiative that allows for direct exports to Europe.

Today, the family business works with farmers and sells to buyers local and abroad, and it has received support from the country’s Ministry of Trade, the global impact investing firm responsAbility and through a joint program of the Enhanced Integrated Framework (EIF), the European Union and the International Financial Corporation (IFC) to support SMEs in the country’s agro-industry, among other international institutions.

Seeing that farmers had the dual struggles of finding buyers and getting good prices, Amru started contract farming in 2014 with about 100 farmers from a minority ethnic group in the country’s highlands. Select farmers were given more marketable paddy seed and assured of a fair price for their harvests, purchased by Amru. The scheme was a success that first year, and it took off from there.

“By 2020, in the sixth year, we had 10,000 farmer families based in 11 provinces throughout the country producing 45,000 tons of organic rice,” said Song Saran, CEO of Amru Rice.

“We understood the weaknesses and we adapted to farmers’ traditional ways, and we worked to change behavior over time, as needed,” he said. “We want them to be able to become entrepreneurs if they want, and know the demand and the supply.”

On the flip side, the government worked to facilitate the work of rice exporters like Amru, including by allowing for the faster clearance of goods at borders, reducing shipping and logistics costs and introducing an online system for managing value-added tax.

These moves created an environment in Cambodia where the rice sector, and its farmers, collectors, buyers and exporters, could thrive.

For Amru, initial capital funding of US$1.5 million from responsAbility in 2014 helped them to grow, especially as they didn’t have sufficient local financing. The investment helped the company to move into sales of more profitable organic rice – now 50% of the business – and Amru now finances working capital through local financing.

ResponsAbility investments target sustainable impacts, and their partnership with Amru has progressed from the business’ very first investment to supporting Amru in providing farmer trainings through dedicated technical assistance projects alongside the provision of long-term financing for expansion.

“In terms of economic benefit, our technical assistance project targeted a 15% increase in productivity of the farm and 15% increase in income of the farmer. These are the parameters we’ve been tracking,” said Neha Baid, Senior Investment Officer at responsAbility.

“We work with a lot of small businesses that are very close to the farm, and where we can see a direct benefit to smallholder farmers, that’s a key focus area for us,” she said.

Recognizing that farmers were dependent on fluctuations in rice prices and some were taking lower prices because they had no other options, Amru has helped farmers create cooperatives so they can better profit from their harvests and even move into the processing side.

These kinds of efforts, from government support in the form of trade facilitation to injections of capital to direct work with rice farmers helped to build up a lot of resilience, and spurred a threefold increase in Cambodia’s rice exports between 2011 and 2016.

COVID-19 struck a blow, with local restaurants closed and therefore not ordering rice, and international buyers also cutting purchasing. The entire supply chain was affected, as were many others.

“For me, it’s grappling with how I can promote and sell more rice. The big disruption for me at the moment is freight, shipping lines have increased their prices. The cost for a container has gone up three or four times, and this has a big impact on income,” Saran said.

Most of his exports go to the European Union, where he sells fragrant rice, red rice, jasmine rice, medium grain rice, black rice, or approximately seven different varieties. But there are strong competitors from the many other rice-producing countries.

The government is continuing to build on its efforts to assist farmers and exporters, including improving cultivation techniques and processing facilities, particularly for rice millers.

“Post harvesting, drying, milling, packaging and labelling are crucial for our plan,” Long said.

The government is also working on the financing side, and providing direct support to impacted farmers.

“To support further access to finance, the government has launched SME Bank of Cambodia and the Agriculture and Rural Development Bank catering to the needs of Cambodian SME businesses and agriculture producers and exporters, respectively. The RGC is also currently implementing a series of measures aimed at mitigating the impacts of COVID-19 on businesses and workers in Cambodia,” said Long.

Amru’s Saran is working with farmers to diversify beyond just rice into other high profit items like black pepper, cassava and cashews. And he is thinking about new markets for processed rice items like syrups and baby food.

“If another crisis comes in the next 4-5 years I think we will be more prepared, because I believe in my supply chain. At the moment we are not yet at our peak, for example other countries can produce 3-4 tons of rice per hectare, but we can only do 2 or 2.5 tons per hectare. We still need more training to ensure more skills to get more productivity. But I know we’ll be ready,” Saran said.

Amru Rice Celebrates 10-Year Milestone

(Khmer Times: Feb 11, 2021)

Amru Rice Co Ltd, a cornerstone of the Kingdom’s agricultural sector, celebrated one decade in business this week at Raffles Hotel in Phnom Penh.

Since its inception, the firm has grown to become one of Cambodia’s leading rice exporters. Amru’s 10,000 contract farmers – more than 60 percent of whom are women – participated in the export of more than 322,000 tonnes of milled rice between 2013 and 2019 to more than 30 countries, with the bulk going to the Asia-Pacific region, China and Europe.

The company was formed after the government issued its Cambodia Rice Policy in August of 2010 to gain trade benefits from the then newly enacted Everything but Arms (EBA) deal with the EU.

The policy laid out three main goals.  Those were the exporting of at least 1 million tonnes of milled rice by 2015, the production of a rice surplus of at least 4 million tonnes and raising the profile of Cambodian rice on the global stage.

Mey Kalyan, one of the authors of the landmark policy, recalled the uphill battle during the dawning of Cambodia’s re-emergence as an agrarian nation after the civil war.

Kalyan shared that the Kingdom’s first mission selling rice on the international market found the Cambodian delegation spending nearly a week in the Philippines in pursuit of a purchase order, only to return home empty-handed after having invested a significant sum of money to make the pitch.

He added that Amrut’s journey from that humble beginning was reflective of the Kingdom’s growth.  Both are stories of overcoming adversity to ultimately achieve success.

“Amru is a good model for Cambodian entrepreneurs. You can see how they struggled in the beginning and worked so hard to get where they are and this is not the end of their journey. There is a long way to go yet. We have something special to offer to the world and Amru is well-positioned to do that because organic rice is becoming more popular across the world,” said Kalyan, who is now senior adviser to the Supreme National Economic Council.

Saran Song, Amru’s founder and chairman, has the unique distinction of sharing his birthday with the founding of the company.

The 40-year-old entrepreneur, who is also president of the Cambodia Rice Federation, credited three factors to the firm’s success.

“First, the government rice promotion policy introduced in 2009/2010 was instrumental in us being able to succeed. Second is my family. My father, now retired, was an agronomist and my mother was a local rice seller, as was her father. Third, the EBA scheme [that initially] granted zero-tariffs for rice imported to the EU,” said Song. Tariffs on rice were later introduced after Italy, an EU member and rice producer, complained of unfair competition.

US Ambassador Patrick Murphy and Australian Ambassador Pablo Kang also addressed the crowd of some 100 people.

Amru Celebrates 10th Anniversary

(Phnom Penh Post: Feb 10, 2021)

Over the last decade since the government established a rice promotion policy in 2010, locally-owned rice miller and exporter Amru Rice (Cambodia) Co Ltd has become one of the game changers in driving milled-rice exports and transforming the Kingdom into a key rice exporter in the international arena.

Speaking at a February 9 ceremony commemorating the 10th anniversary of the company, its CEO Song Saran said time had seemingly passed in the blink of an eye and that Amru had made decent strides over the years.

“Looking back on the past, there were three things that inspired us to venture into this business. First was the government rice promotion policy introduced in 2009-2010 and second was my family – my retired father was an agronomist and my mother was a local milled-rice seller who inherited the work from her father.

“Third was the EBA [Everything But Arms] scheme that granted zero-tariffs for milled rice imported to the EU” at the time, he said.

On August 12, the European Commission (EC) officially withdrew 20 per cent of the Everything But Arms (EBA) scheme from Cambodia. The suspension affects one-fifth or €1 billion ($1.2 billion) of the Kingdom’s annual exports to the EU’s 27-nation bloc.

Saran added: “I hope we can continue to grow in the next 10 years, even while the world grapples with the Covid-19 pandemic, a global economic recession and climate change.

“We still have a long way to go in promoting responsible agriculture and the Cambodian brand, as well as achieving mutual benefits through international markets.”

Ministry of Commerce secretary of state Tek Reth Kamrong said Amru epitomises the spirit of entrepreneurship and leverages government policy and development partnerships to make Cambodian rice known to the world.

“Their exploits have also improved the living standards of many, many farmers throughout the country. As we look to the foreseeable future, Cambodia is undeniably capable of producing myriad products for local and overseas markets,” she said.

Established in 2011, Amru remains very active in all markets except for Africa. The company has exported over 450,000 metric tonnes of milled rice since its inception.

In 2015, the company shifted some its focus to organic rice and sustainable fragrant rice as well as investing in the infrastructure required under the high-end food-safety standards for export to Europe, the US, China and the Asia-Pacific.

Also present at the event, US ambassador to Cambodia Patrick Murphy congratulated Amru on its success, adding that the company is dedicated and a great partner for the US.

“Through the partnership we have enjoyed with Amru, Amru completed a successful and first-ever US Export-Import Bank [Exim] deal here in Cambodia, helping the company purchase the western world’s high-technology US-made rice silo – is to help Amru to increase capacity but also productivity, that’s a great thing.

“Last year, our US Agency for International Development [USAID] linked Amru to 16 sustainable rice cooperatives helping to strengthen the company’s value chain. In the United States, our view on development financial cooperation is now to support Amru’s organic rice production,” he said.

In May 2018, Amru became the Kingdom’s first exporter to receive an Exim-backed loan. The $345,400 loan was disbursed by Connecticut-headquartered Atrafin LLC for the purchase of a 3,000-tonne storage system from Scafco Corp, which is based in Washington state.