Cambodian Rice Federation (CRF) warned the country’s entire export market could be destroyed by the scourge of rice smuggling. The report, which detailed a laundry list of problems within the CRF itself and the sector as a whole, provides a window into the deep dysfunction and fragility of an industry that occupies a fundamentally central place in Cambodia’s society and economy. The CRF was founded in 2014 to try and turbocharge a Cambodian rice industry that lagged far behind rivals Thailand and Vietnam in output. While exports rose in 2017 by 17.3 percent on the previous year to about 700,000 tons following a years long upward trend they remain far shy of Vietnam, which exported nearly 6 million tons and Thailand, which exported more than 11 million tons in the same period.