Agriculture and fishing

Cambodia’s 2011 rubber exports and export prices grew by 5.5 per cent and 131 per cent respectively, according to data from the Ministry of Commerce obtained by the Post. The data shows rubber exports last year totalled 46,727 tonnes, compared to 30,040 tonnes in 2010. Export ...

Villagers from Kratie province, who blocked National Road 76a last week after four of their own were shot by guards working for agro-development firm TTY, appear to be on their way to receiving farmland they lost to the company in an economic land concession. A statement ...

Strong growth in garment, textile, and agricultural exports drove a 42.7 per cent increase in Cambodia’s total exports for 2011, official Ministry of Commerce data shows. The Kingdom exported $4.98 billion in goods last year, compared with $3.49 billion the year before. Market diversification and a relaxing ...

The Cambodian Center for Study and Development in Agriculture (Cedac) said yesterday that it plans to raise its annual production of organic vegetables from 120 tons to 600 tons by the end of 2015. Lim Sokun Darun, program coordinator at Cedac, said that the decision to ...

The government said yesterday that a gold mine in Kompong Cham province that has damaged about 1 square km of land with chemical waste would cost at least $4 million to clean up. Speaking at a workshop in Phnom Penh on revenue transparency, Sim Sisokhaly, director ...

The number of criminal charges meted out to villagers embroiled in land disputes rose by more than 50 percent in 2011 compared to the previous year, according to figures released by the rights group Adhoc yesterday. The rights group found that the courts charged 475 villagers ...

Violence erupted yesterday in Kratie province’s Snuol district where six people were shot and injured when RCAF soldiers working for a rubber company opened fire on a crowd of villagers who were trying to stop the company from clearing land in the area, police and ...

More than 11,000 families were affected by government-granted economic land concessions in 2011, nearly 3,000 more families than were affected the previous year, according to figures released yesterday by local rights group Licadho. A total of more than 2 million hectares of the country’s forests and ...

The owner of development firm Phan Imex Company said yesterday that 64 families from the capital’s Borei Keila community who were demanding compensation for houses demolished on January 3 did not have the documents to prove they had owned a house on the site. Phan Imex ...

Asia Golden Rice (AGR), Thailand’s second-largest rice exporter, will invest $47 million to build milling plants in Cambodia capable of processing up to 1 million tons of rice per year, according to a company representative and reports from the Thai news media yesterday. “This will be ...

About 200 villagers, who have been embroiled in a long-running land dispute with the well-connected agro-business Pheapimex over a 316,000-hectare economic land concession in Pursat province, staged a protest yesterday against the company’s continued efforts to clear their farmland. The protests came just three days after ...

Less than two weeks after the Tonle Sap Authority reportedly installed a ban on large-scale fish exports, Prime Minister Hun Sen declined to endorse the order and re-opened exports, officials said yesterday. Chan Youttha, secretary-general of the Tonle Sap Authority, said it had prepared a report ...

Just over a year since the World Bank froze its funds to the government, the bank yesterday reiterated that a decision on whether or not it would start providing loans again remains nowhere in sight. In August, the World Bank announced that it would not provide ...

Crocodile farmers in Siem Reap are turning away from the export of hatchlings to Vietnam, choosing instead sell the reptiles for their skins. Luon Nam, president of the province’s Crocodile Feeding Association, said yesterday the reliance on Vietnam was an unsustainable strategy for the industry. Any change ...

A nationwide survey was under way by the Ministry of Commerce’s Rice Exporter Union to measure Cambodia’s milled-rice industry in order to give international buyers an accurate picture of the Kingdom’s current capacity, insiders said yesterday. Although data for the survey was still being collected, those ...

Cambodia needs at least another $120 million of investment in rice mills if it is to meet the government’s 2015 target of exporting 1 million tons of rice, Agriculture Minister Chan Sarun said yesterday. While rice exports from Cambodia this year have seen a significant increase ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday ordered an end to all private land deals inside the country’s protected areas and warned local businessmen and officials against making such illegal deals. “All official paperwork in connection with natural protected areas is invalid,” he said while speaking at the ...

The Kingdom’s inflation rate fell month-on-month in November for the first time all year, dropping 0.7 per cent from October, according to National Institute of Statistics data. However, year-on-year inflation in November increased 5.7 per cent, the NIS reported. “We see that we got a bigger supply ...

Cambodia’s total exports surged 42 per cent through November to US$4.5 billion from $3.16 billion, official data from the Ministry of Commerce showed, as the Kingdom’s staple products of garments, textiles and agriculture led the move. Rising global demand, new trade agreements with regional neighbours and ...

Cambodia’s total paddy rice output reached 8.4 million tonnes in 2011, up from 8.25 million tonnes last year, according an initial assessment by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. Provincial MAFF officials from across the Kingdom met in Phnom Penh on Saturday, when data was ...

THE precious stone industry in Pailin province is facing bankruptcy as supplies dwindle and locals turn to agriculture as their main source of revenue, provincial authorities told the Post. Pailin, long known for its rubies, sapphires and other precious stones, now depends on foreign imports to ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday outlined the government’s plans to spur economic growth in the northeast of the country through implementing a wide range of projects in sectors such as agriculture and the extractive industries. Rights workers have warned that little information on the plans for ...

The National Assembly yesterday passed Cambodia’s first law on pesticide and chemical fertiliser control, which the government hopes will regulate the use and sale of dangerous chemicals on agricultural products. Currently, hazardous pesticides are sold with little regulation and often without proper labeling that instructs farmers ...

A woman summonsed to Kampong Speu provincial court over a land dispute yesterday returned home without being arrested after about 150 protesting villagers turned out to support her. Rath Thavy, provincial monitor for human rights group Adhoc, speculated that the court decided not to arrest Khem ...