Research On Cambodian Rice Export Competitiveness And Determinants

As an important staple food for humanity,rice is the main source of foreign exchange for most Asian countries,included Cambodia.Widely known as “white gold” in Cambodia,milled rice is the country's economic foundation and foremost agro-exportable commodity.Thus,this dissertation aims to investigate the export competitiveness and to identify the determinants of Cambodian rice exports,by focusing on five imperative aspects(through different econometric estimations and statistical analytical methods),as follows:1)Empirical analysis of current situation and trends of Cambodian rice economy: the descriptive statistical methods(e.g.tables,graphs,maps and so on)were utilized.2)Investigation of numerous trade-related policies' impacts on Cambodian rice exports:the discussion methods based on existing literatures were conducted.3)Analysis of the Relative export competitiveness(REC)of Cambodian rice sector in the world rice market: the indexes of REC and Relative symmetric export competitiveness (RSEC)were developed.The short-run regression(SRR)model was estimated for identifying the potential determinants of the REC of Cambodian rice sector.The data sets used for this analysis were available from 1995 to 2018(24-year).4)Estimation of major influencing factors of Cambodian rice exports: the dynamic panel gravity model was constructed and analyzed based on GLS,PPML and Heckman model.Our data sets contained 880 observations(22-year 1995-2016 × 40 selected partners).5)Analysis of impacts of SPS measures: the SPS gravity models analyzed based on GLS,PPML,and Heckman approaches were utilized,based on data sets contained a total observations of 874(23-year 1996-2018 × 38 importing major partners).The main findings derived from the research are as follows: EU is the biggest market for Cambodian rice,while China(included the mainland China,Hong Kong,Macao and Taiwan)is gradually become the second largest international market.The third market is ASEAN market,and the countries along the BRI would be another important market for Cambodian rice exports.Main varieties of rice exported from Cambodia are Long Grain,Fragrant Sen Kraob and Neang Sauy,Jasmine Phka Rumduol or Phka Malis and Long Grain Parboiled.Our findings revealed the gradually improvement of Cambodian rice's export competitiveness in the international market over times,especially after the application of “Rice export policy”(RP2010).The evidences showed that the RP2010 had pushed the Cambodia's REC from the very lower stage to the comparable stage of other world's rice exporters.SRR model reveals the important effects of local policies' implementation(RP2010 and RS-III in particular)on the national rice industry.The model also indicated that the European EBA and the Chinese BRI positive-significantly influencing the exports of Cambodian rice.Moreover,the domestic supply/demand management was defined as another major source for maintaining the export competitiveness of rice sector in Cambodia.The Dynamic Panel Gravity Model suggested that the historical ties play important role in Cambodian rice exports.However,these exports were further sensitive to the macroeconomic factors(like financial crisis and so on).The findings also indicated that the exchange rate policy and agricultural land expansion are one of the core influencing factors promoting rice exports.The SPS Gravity Model of the study also indicated that SPS measures have high negative impact on Cambodian rice exports.Cambodian rice is morepopular in the higher-income international markets such as the EU,than others.Additionally,our findings revealed that there should be great opportunities for Cambodia to expand the market shares if Cambodia could accumulate experiences and consider for fulfilling the higher standards required by SPS beforehand of market access.Some applications and recommendations for Cambodian rice development have been suggested based on the findings of the research.