Crop products and commodities

The government will use the untapped funds of an emergency rice loan package to support struggling corn farmers who have protested the low market prices for their crop this season, state officials said yesterday. ...

After about 500 protesting farmers blockaded a national road in Battambang province last week, local authorities in neighboring districts are now making efforts to placate hundreds of other farmers also restless over depressed corn and cassava prices. ...

Hundreds of corn farmers blocked a main road in Battambang province on Thursday, hoping the barricade would persuade Prime Minister Hun Sen to put pressure on traders to raise the dwindling crop prices that are hurting their livelihoods. ...

China is expected to purchase 300,000 tonnes of rubber from Cambodia in 2018, according to a commerce ministry statement.​ ...

Cambodia rice mogul Song Saran, the CEO of one of the Kingdom’s top rice exporters, will diversify his agricultural business interests with the construction of a factory to clean and process locally grown pepper, he said yesterday. ...

A Chinese firm that plans to invest $2 billion into developing the Kingdom’s first special economic zone (SEZ) dedicated solely to agricultural processing and storage has signed on a new partner to help jumpstart the stalled project, a top agriculture official said yesterday. ...

Mong Reththy Group (MRG), the Kingdom’s largest agro-industrial conglomerate, has secured a deal to export additional volumes of locally grown mangoes to France, the company announced yesterday on its Facebook page. ...

India plans to produce latex concentrate for the manufacture of specialised products with high tensile strength and resilience from fresh latex collected in Cambodian rubber plantations.​ ...

Cassava prices in Cambodia experienced a sharp drop this month leading to heavy losses for smallholder farmers unable to quickly switch to more profitable crops and recoup their mounting losses, a provincial agriculture official said yesterday. ...

A Thai company has expressed an interest in exporting Kampong Speu’s Keo Romeat mangoes to Europe, America and Australia, according to a senior Agriculture Ministry official. ...

Growing demand for animal feed is driving up both the demand and price of corn, with smallholder farmers claiming the field crop offers a more stable market than cassava.Corn is grown on more than 140,000 hectares in Cambodia and can be harvested twice a year, ...

The rapid expansion of pepper cultivation in Cambodia coincides with the spice’s plummeting world prices, creating concerns that the glut of pepper ripening on vines across the Kingdom could further erode next season’s market prices and push the sector toward a collapse. ...

Khdib Sreymich, general manager of Coco Khmer, a Cambodia-based coconut cosmetics manufacturer, said her company is forced to import coconuts from Vietnamese suppliers to meet consumer demand for the company’s products. She explained that the farmers preferred to sell the coconuts when they were young, ...

Cashew nut prices seem to have fallen slightly at the end of harvest season compared to March this year, according to the cashew nut association in Kampong Thom province. Association president Oum Uon said prices for raw cashew nuts dropped from 7,000 riel ($1.75) per kilo ...

This is a typical morning for many villagers in Kampot province’s Kampong Trach district, where almost 400 families are members of Kampot Pepper Promotion Association. Black Kampot pepper currently sells for $15 per kilogramme, while red fetches $25 and white $28 per kg. ...

While Cambodian mango varieties such as Keo Romeat are well regarded in overseas markets, there are constraints which need to be addressed before large scale exports can be achieved, said the owner of the largest agro-industrial company in Cambodia yesterday. ...

Hong Kong-listed firm North Asia Resources Holding Ltd announced yesterday that it has purchased 14,000 hectares of an economic land concession in Pursat province from Henan Tianguan Enterprise Group for $53.2 million.​ ...

The slowdown of regional and global economies, especially in China, US dollar appreciation, unfavourable weather and global stock market speculation have plunged rubber prices, the Association for Rubber Development in Cambodia said.   ...

Pepper production inched up to close to 12,000 tonnes last year with cultivation on 6,124 hectares, but unstable prices have led to calls for geographic indicator (GI) certificates for a range of peppers. ...

Farmers in Pursat province are to benefit from a new vegetable market, allowing them to sell their produce for free for the first five years. The market is aimed at boosting sales of chemical-free vegetables for distribution across the country, to reduce reliance on imported vegetables ...

The Kingdom’s leading palm oil producer has projected revenues of $20 million this year as it targets another record-setting year for crude palm oil exports. ...

Several international and local coffee industry representatives gathered yesterday for the start of a three-day event promoting partnerships and franchising opportunities to satisfy Cambodia’s growing coffee cravings. ...

International commodity prices for cashew nuts are rapidly increasing due to lower supply from Cambodia and Vietnam which is driving up profits for the Kingdom’s farmers, according to industry stakeholders. ...

Rice millers have taken up less than a quarter of a $27 million emergency loan fund to stabilise prices of the grain, blaming late disbursement for the poor take up. ...