Agriculture and fishing

KAMPONG SPEU PROVINCE— Three years ago, Pao had a farm and a charcoal stove near a stream in a community called Omlaing in western Cambodia. The farm gave her rice, charcoal sales gave her extra income and the nearby forest provided edible and medicinal plants. Pao ...

State-owned Green Trade Company has signed an agreement with China’s Shandong Meijing Rice Co Ltd to export 100,000 tonnes of Cambodia’s milled rice. The deal was signed between Chinese and Cambodian officials on September 4 at the China-ASEAN summit in the southwest Chinese city of Nanning, ...

India-based Tata International Ltd announced yesterday that it would import and distribute its Farmtrac Tractors in Cambodia to profit from the country’s growing agricultural sector. Speaking at the launching ceremony at the Koh Pich exhibition centre, Jitendra Manghinani, country manager of Tata South East Asia (Cambodia), ...

More than 2,000 cattle in Svay Rieng province are infected with the potentially fatal foot-and-mouth disease, officials said yesterday. Pen Chhanthy, chief of the provincial animal health and production office, said that cattle in six districts of Svay Rieng had returned positive tests for the ...

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has said that its future support of agricultural development in Cambodia depends on the outcome of an investigation into a provincial official accused of embezzling funds from JICA-donated fertilizer. The accused, deputy bureau chief of Battambang’s department of agriculture Seng ...

While New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra is working overtime to restore its damaged brand in the wake of a contaminated baby milk scare that triggered a global recall, local distributors whose products included the suspect ingredient are defending their own reputations. Local supplier Dumex Cambodia ...

A Thai-owned sugar company has threatened legal action against a newspaper that ran a story and video depicting the use of child labour at its Koh Kong province plantation, but advocates on the ground there say the children are indeed used as employees. The Bangkok Post yesterday reported ...

Responding to growing demand in US and EU markets, organic rice exports have surged, reaching 200 tonnes in the first six months of this year, compared with 100 tonnes for all of last year. Exports of organic rice are meagre compared with other varieties, such ...

In a first step toward clearing villagers from land intended for a planned Koh Kong provincial hydroelectric dam, a Chinese development firm has blocked a road leading to plots where villagers have continued to harvest rice. Officials from Tianjin Union Development Group, which was awarded a ...

An official from Battambang province’s department of agriculture who was charged last Monday with embezzling $200,000 from the illegal sale of fertilizer donated to the poor by Japan has implicated four other officials in the case, including the son of senior CPP lawmaker Cheam Yeap, ...

Siem Reap’s provincial government apparatus, which in 2010 was relocated to a remote site 16 km outside of the city as part of an extensive and hugely controversial swap of government land and buildings, is moving back to its old home in the tourist city’s ...

Roughly 100 rubber farmers in Ratanakkiri province’s O’Chum district blocked National Road 78A on Wednesday, demanding that authorities take action against a pair of laborers they accuse of stealing resin from their land. The laborers—Math Las, 40, and his wife, Nos Yas, 38—who are reportedly employed ...

Only one of the 241 Cambodians questioned for the largest survey of the notoriously abusive Thai fishing industry’s workforce to date said he was forced into the job, according to a new report by the International Labor Organization (ILO). Though some of the findings are in ...

The Cambodian government’s plan to build 20 dams along the Mekong River, with a view to boosting energy security, could harm food security and biodiversity in the region, as well as ignite a regional conflict over sharing of the river’s water, a conference has heard. ...

Far stricter monitoring of the recruitment and employment of Cambodians and other migrant labourers is needed to ensure the future of the Thai fishing industry, a new study by the International Labour Organization warns. Two and a half per cent of the 241 Cambodians interviewed ...

Thailand’s restriction on agricultural imports earlier this year caused dramatic declines for Cambodia’s cassava exports during the harvest season, provincial border officials said yesterday. Cambodia’s exports of cassava reached 288,109 tonnes in the first six months of this year, a decline of 55 per cent from ...

The Pursat Provincial Court has issued a summons to a soldier based on the Thai border for allegedly clearing protected land in Veal Veng district, a move the man believes was orchestrated by a company owned by tycoon Try Pheap, which is embroiled in an ...

In mid-August, on day seven of production at the Coco Khmer social enterprise, the team experienced a setback. Temperatures in the fermenting room must remain between 35 and 40 degrees to produce the organization’s virgin coconut oil, but the temperature on that rainy day refused to ...

It’s 1am and, as Phnom Penh sleeps, the haunting squeals of distressed animals are all that can be heard in the darkness of a field in Russey Keo district. Pigs in open-air sheds have sensed what’s coming: Hundreds of them are about to be slaughtered for ...

For the second time in as many weeks, an NGO has accused tycoon Try Pheap of facilitating illegal logging in a protected forest during the election campaign and post-election period, and with the protection of authorities. In a report set to be released today by the ...

Flash floods have killed at least 13 people and affected about 3,000 families in Cambodia since early this month, a disaster control spokesman said Wednesday. Four provinces being hit by floods are Banteay Meanchey, Preah Vihear, Kampong Thom, and Kratie, Keo Vy, chief of the Cabinet ...

Cambodia was expected to export as much as 400,000 tons of milled rice in 2013 thanks to rising demand on international markets and the country’s efforts in developing rice industry, Agriculture Minister Chan Sarun said Tuesday. “We project that Cambodia can export up to 400,000 tons ...

About 30 truck drivers transporting fruit blocked National Road 5 in Banteay Meanchey province’s O’Chrou district for an hour yesterday after customs of­ficials arrested six of their fellow drivers for refusing to pay fees they thought were unreasonable, drivers said. Nou Sal, 35, who transports ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Monday questioned two businessmen over allegations of fraud and using forged public documents, including claims they faked a signature from Prime Minister Hun Sen in a mining transaction, court and police officials said. Deputy prosecutor Var Sakada said Cambodian Al ...