PHNOM PENH, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia has suspended sales of milled rice to the consumers in Phnom Penh after the price stabilized, head of rice entrepreneurs said Wednesday.

Phou Puy, president of the Federation of Cambodian Rice Millers Association said the sales of milled rice in Phnom Penh in a bid to stop the soaring price due to the flooding were suspended Wednesday.

He said the decision was made after the price of the rice at markets returns to "normalcy or stabilized."

Phou Puy said since the sales of milled rice began on October 16, more than 680 tons have been sold.

The increase of price is in part due to panic buying on fears that the flooding will lead to a shortage of rice in the country.

The price of rice had been soaring up to about 630 U.S. dollars per ton from the original price of around 520 U.S dollar per ton.

Cambodia is suffering the worst flooding over the last decade. To date, at least 247 people were killed and about 1.5 million people were affected.

Cambodia is targeting to export one million ton of milled rice to foreign markets by 2015.

About 80 percent of the country's more than 14 million population are farmers.