Agriculture
Agricultural commodities, processing and products
Rubber decline stokes worry
The government and industry insiders are worried about the steady decline of rubber prices over the last three years, during which the area it is cultivated in has grown. “Farmers and investors raised concern . . . over the trend of the market and the price of natural ...
Chan Muyhong
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/rubber-decline-stokes-worry
Hun Sen pushes rice export to Brunei
Prime Minister Hun Sen said that he would like to see the stronger economic and trade cooperation between Cambodia and Brunei. And Cambodia want to increase the rice export to Brunei. ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=11&token=OGVjODA2M2I1MDM
Cambodia needs more actions to curb bird flu: PM
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said Friday that the country needed to prepare more measures to curb the spread of H5N1 strain of avian influenza, which broke out the worst last year and this year. “We have done a lot to control the spread of the ...
Xinhuanet News Staff
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2014-03/28/c_133220954.htm
Grappling with avian flu, Cambodians wait for compensation
In little more than a year, 16 Cambodians are known to have died from the human form of avian influenza H5N1, the highest number of fatalities in the world. Experts have met in Phnom Penh to try to work out why. The latest victim of ...
Global Times News Staff
http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/851455.shtml#.Uzd_zKiSyls
Firm ‘logging in sanctuary’
A company in Mondulkiri’s Sok San commune has been gradually cutting down a community forest, pushing more than 100 families off their land, villagers said yesterday. “That land belongs to us, the government granted it to us in 1999. But the company invaded and let us ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/firm-%E2%80%98logging-sanctuary%E2%80%99
AEC lures Thai rice millers to invest in Cambodia
Thai rice millers are lining up to build mills in Cambodia to cash in on imminent regional economic integration, with experts warning Cambodian rice is likely to flood Thailand. An industry source said several millers from Thailand’s central and northeastern regions are preparing to set up ...
Bangkok Post News Staff
http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/news/401535/aec-lures-thai-rice-millers-to-invest-in-cambodia
Sugar plantation under investigation for using child labor
Police and human rights workers are investigating claims that a Chinese-owned sugarcane plantation in Preah Vihear province has been employing child workers since December. Oeu Bunthany said the Y Heng Company fired her on Saturday after she complained to local police that up to 20 children ...
Khy Sovuthy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/sugar-plantation-under-investigation-for-using-child-labor-54866/
Cambodia Rice Exporters say hackers are compromising websites, account info
The Cambodian Rice Exporters would like to alert the rice community that some of the nation’s rice exporters’ websites and e-mail addresses have been attacked and compromised by hackers. ...
Oryza News Staff
http://oryza.com/news/rice-news/cambodia-rice-exporters-say-hackers-are-compromising-websites-account-info
Second death confirmed on Kompong Speu sugar plantation
A 44-year-old woman was run over and killed by a harvesting machine on Sunday while working on a sugarcane plantation in Kompong Speu province owned by CPP Senator Ly Yong Phat, marking at least the second death on the plantation since December. Y Mom, originally from ...
Kuch Naren and Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/second-death-confirmed-on-kompong-speu-sugar-plantation-54417/
Sugar exports to stay duty free, EU trade czar says
European Union Trade Commissioner Karel de Gucht said he has no plans to launch an investigation into Cambodia’s much-criticized sugarcane plantations after a meeting with Commerce Minister Sun Chanthol in Phnom Penh on Tuesday. Bottom line: Cambodia’s free trade benefits to Europe are safe for ...
Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/sugar-exports-to-stay-duty-free-eu-trade-czar-says-54447/
Kreung protest for release of charged arsonist
Dozens of ethnic minority Kreung villagers protested outside the Ratanakkiri Provincial Court on Monday, demanding the release of a fellow Kreung man presently in pretrial detention for setting fire to a pile of wood on land the community sold in 2007 but claims it was ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/kreung-protest-for-release-of-charged-arsonist-54429/
Sugar on EU visit’s agenda
European Union Trade Commissioner Karel de Gucht will visit Cambodia this week, the European Commission announced, with rights groups hoping that land grabbing related to sugar plantations will be high on the agenda. Following bilateral meetings in Brussels last week between Cambodia and the EU during ...
Kevin Ponniah and Vong Sokheng
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/sugar-eu-visit%E2%80%99s-agenda
A refined approach?
Hundreds of trucks hauling sugarcane queue up along the dusty roads that cut a path through a plantation in Kampong Speu province. Their destination: Cambodia’s most advanced sugar refinery. Its owners say the landmark project, run by the Phnom Penh Sugar Company and its president, ruling ...
Daniel de Carteret
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/refined-approach
Cambodia Rice Federation (CRF) Launched to Help Nation Reach Annual Rice Export Target of One Million Tons by 2015
Cambodia officially announced the creation of the Cambodia Rice Federation (CRF) to improve competitiveness, promote trade, and increase investment in the rice sector, according to comments from the Prime Minister. Board elections are expected to take place Mrch 24 and the chairman is limited to ...
Oryza News Staff
http://oryza.com/news/rice-news/cambodia-rice-federation-crf-launched-help-nation-reach-annual-rice-export-target-one
Agriculture Ministry establishes 2 H5N1 ‘contamination zones’
The Ministry of Agriculture has created designated bird flu contamination zones in Phnom Penh and Kandal province following the deaths of hundreds of birds due to the H5N1 virus, officials said Wednesday. Agriculture Minister Ouk Rabon signed two directives late last month saying that poultry being ...
Khuon Narim and Denise Hruby
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/agriculture-ministry-establishes-2-h5n1-contamination-zones-53633/
New owners, old story
An existing moratorium on economic land concessions should be no impediment to pouring more cash into the Kingdom’s booming, and highly criticised, rubber trade, industry executives in the capital heard yesterday, as many current ELCs can simply be recycled to a new crop of investors. Ly ...
Daniel Pye
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/new-owners-old-story
Meeting on bitter sugar issues
An ad hoc committee comprised of representatives from the European Union, the Ministry of Commerce, provincial administrations and the sugar industry met again yesterday at the ministry’s headquarters to continue its discussion of issues faced by those displaced by sugar plantations. The committee touched upon topics ...
Stuart White
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/meeting-bitter-sugar-issues
Palm oil plantation accused of withholding workers’ pay
More than 20 families working on a controversial palm oil plantation in Ratanakkiri province owned by the Hoang Anh Lumphat company have filed a complaint with rights group Adhoc accusing the owners of improperly withholding one month’s pay. Lor Sophal said he and another 22 families, ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/palm-oil-plantation-accused-of-withholding-workers-pay-53520/
Families file complaint over Pailin governor
The 19 families in Pailin province who were told by police and military police on Saturday to vacate their land filed a complaint with Adhoc on Monday, the provincial coordinator for the NGO said. Authorities told the families to move on Saturday from the 95-hectares they ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/families-file-complaint-over-pailin-governor-53443/
Pailin governor orders 19 families to move off his land
More than 60 police and military police informed 19 families farming on a plot of land in Pailin province’s Sala Krao district on Saturday that they would have to move as they were growing crops on state land. However, Prak Sophima, provincial coordinator for rights group ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/pailin-governor-orders-19-families-to-move-off-his-land-53397/
NGO declares Coca-Cola’s visit compromised by police
Auditors from the Coca-Cola Company visited Oddar Meanchey province on Friday to investigate allegations of land grabbing against sugar plantations that supply the global drinks giant, but called off a community meeting because of a heavy police presence, an NGO said Sunday. Chun Bora of the ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ngo-declares-coca-colas-visit-compromised-by-police-53395/
Rice prices continue to fall
As buyers swoop in to purchase Thai rice at garage-sale prices, Cambodian exporters are dealing with lower than usual rates, and the results are being felt all the way down the supply chain to the farmers themselves. New figures from rice industry publication Oryza show that ...
Chan Muy Hong
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/rice-prices-continue-fall
Long-term plans for durian
Though an occasional mango or pineapple can be spotted on Eung Uy Kheam’s sleepy farm in Kampot province, it’s the 130 durian trees that the fourth-generation farmer calls his cash crop. In Kampot, on Cambodia’s southwest coast, a pilot project led by the provincial Department ...
Chan Muy Hong and Daniel de Carteret
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/long-term-plans-durian
Environment minister visits UDG; Villagers disappointed
Environment Minister Say Sam Al failed to meet the villagers locked in a long-running land dispute with the Chinese-owned company Union Development Group (UDG) on Wednesday, despite visiting company officials in Koh Kong province, according to a rights worker and a provincial official. Mr. Sam Al ...
Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/environment-minister-visits-udg-villagers-disappointed-53277/