Agriculture and fishing

As part of a continuing push to bolster rice exports, the government has agreed to waive all export tariffs on milled rice and will also eliminate value-added tax (VAT) on paddy rice purchased domestically. According to a promulgation signed last month by Finance Minister Keat Chhon, ...

The Center for Study and Development of Agriculture (Cedac) is calling on the government and microfinance firms to issue low-interest loans for flood-stricken farmers in order to save this year’s dry season rice harvest. Floods have destroyed 10 percent of the rainy season rice crop and ...

Military police in Ratanakiri province arrested an RCAF officer Monday evening for shooting a 20-year-old villager who was riding his motorcycle across land at the center of a long-running land dispute between ethnic minority villagers and rubber company DM Group, officials said yesterday. RCAF second lieutenant ...

An environmental group yesterday refuted the validity of a report commissioned by Laos in September claiming that construction of its controversial Xayaburi dam would not have a significant impact on the Mekong River. The report, completed for the Lao government by Swiss engineer Poyry Energy AG, ...

Rubber growers and exporters in Cambodia stalled exports as rubber prices continued a sharp decline that companies attributed to flooding in Thailand and economic turmoil in Europe. Heng Sreng, general director of Long Sreng International Co Ltd and owner of Boeung Keth Rubber Plantation in Kampong ...

While the World Trade Organisation yesterday lauded Cambodia’s economic achievements since joining in 2004, officials pointed to the lack of much-needed financing for the Kingdom’s burgeoning trade sector. Cambodia lacks the capacity to finance the manufacturing and agriculture exports that would allow the country’s industries to ...

As hundreds of villagers belonging to the Prey Long People’s Network began a week-long campaign to save Prey Long forest, Kompong Thom province military police intervened Sunday and prevented a group of about 80 villagers from joining the campaign, an environmental activist said yesterday. Chut Wutty, ...

Cambodia plans to expand its exports of milled rice and other agricultural products to the United Arab Emirates, Minister of Commerce Cham Prasidh said yesterday. The UAE seeks a replacement for the milled rice it would otherwise import from Thailand, where the worst flooding in decades ...

Freight shipments through Phnom Penh Autonomous Port, Cambodia’s second largest port, increased more than 30 per cent year-on-year through October, according to official figures ...

Increased fishing yields due to floods have led to an increase in rental fees for the Kingdom’s fishing lots compared to 2010, according to official data. Revenues from bidding on 52 fishing lots in Phnom Penh and four other provinces increased by US$735,000 year to date, ...

Labour legislation in Cambodia is so weak and so often ignored that half the Kingdom’s children between the ages of seven and 14 participate in the workforce, the world’s largest federation of unions has told the World Trade Organisation General Council in Geneva. Children, women and ...

The government had set aside 3,000 tonnes of rice seeds to distribute to farmers whose crops were destroyed by flooding and had so far distributed 1,900 tonnes of rice to those affected by the floods in 18 provinces, the National Committee for Disaster Management said ...

The US is scheduled today to sign off on another $20 million in funding for aid projects in Cambodia, according to a US Embassy statement issued yesterday. One project will “strengthen the ability of civil society, the private sector, and the government to address food security ...

The Cambodian Embassy in Malaysia returned abused Cambodian maids, including women who were raped by their employers, to work at maid recruitment agencies in that country, a new report by Human Rights Watch claims. The New York-based rights group also said Cambodian police colluded with labor ...

Cambodia could borrow US$1.1 billion from other countries in 2012, 75 per cent more than this year, to help repair infrastructure damaged in flooding and support efforts to increase rice exports to one million tonnes by 2015, a senior official said yesterday. Cheam Yeap, chairman of ...

Cambodian crocodile farmers have blamed the falling price of the reptile on flooding, which they say has turned away Thai and Vietnamese buyers – the market’s cornerstone. Prices for young crocodiles have dropped 25 per cent since August, Kandal breeder Kaing Sarin said. His reptiles fetched ...

The Royal Cambodian Government has given another slice of the Boeung Per Wildlife Sanctuary to the agro-industry. A report in the Royal book released on October 12 states that 1,410 hectares had been granted to two unidentified private businesses for development, particularly the planting of rubber ...

Total government spending in 2012 is set to reach $2.62 billion, an increase of 9 percent on the $2.4 billion the government had budgeted to spend in 2011, according to a copy of the 2012 draft budget law obtained yesterday. As part of the new budget, ...

Total outstanding loans in the microfinance sector reached $815.47 million in the third quarter, a 25.8 percent rise compared to beginning of the year, according to data released yesterday by the Cambodia Microfinance Association (CMA) Despite growth in the sector, microfinance institutions said nonperforming loans were ...

Total exports during the first nine months of the year rose 41 percent to $3.5 billion compared to the same period in 2010, according to data released by the Ministry of Commerce. Of the total amount, $3.1 billion was in garments, $10 million in paddy rice, ...

October marks the start of the main rice harvest in Thailand, the world’s largest exporter of the grain. Traders are waiting to see the full impact of flooding on the crop, but it’s already clear that output across Southeast Asia will fall substantially. The U.N.’s ...

The worst floods in a decade may boost the number of nonperforming loans in the Kingdom’s microfinance industry in the fourth quarter, insiders said yesterday. However, those insiders said the damage done to Cambodia’s agriculture sector would not have a significant impact given the MFIs’ diversified ...

The Minister for Agriculture yesterday appealed to buyers to address the shortage of pigs in Phnom Penh by applying for licenses that would allow them to import more livestock from neighbouring countries. An industry representative and a market expert, however, warned of the potential fallout that ...

The Agriculture Ministry is preparing to distribute rice seedlings in an effort to replace more than 220,000 hectares of rice paddy that has been destroyed by flooding. However, by the time floodwaters recede, there won’t be enough time left in the rainy season to replant ...