Cambodia achieved historical records of rice harvest in 2008, Chinese-language newspaper the Jian Hua Daily on Thursday quoted Minister of Agriculture, Forests and Fisheries Chan Sarun as saying.

Farmers planted 2.25 million hectares of rice during the rainy season in 2008, with an average turnout of 2.54 tons of rice per hectare, Chan Sarun told an annual meeting of his ministry here on Wednesday.

In addition, they planted 350,000 hectares of rice during the dry season in 2008, with an average turnout of 4.04 tons of rice per hectare, said the minister.

"These are our historical records in terms of rice harvest," he added.

In late March, the minister told reporters that the kingdom harvested over 7 million tons of rice in 2008, with at least 2 million tons ready for export.

Cambodia used to be a major exporter of rice within the region of the Mekong River.

However, due to years of war, its rice production was ravaged at the end of last century and currently lags behind its neighboring countries like Thailand and Vietnam in the field of rice export.