Agriculture and fishing

With ongoing floods causing an unprecedented $521 million in estimated damages, economists warn that poor farmers are being the hardest hit. The latest government estimate marks a roughly threefold increase from an earlier prediction of more than $161 million, which was the cost of the ...

The Kingdom’s fish exports declined 48 per cent in the first nine months of 2011, as a result of growing local demand, according to Ministry of Commerce figures. The statistics showed that Cambodia’s export of fish totalled 1,099 tonnes from January to September, compared to 2,123 ...

The latest United Nations assessment shows that the damage from flooding is far worse than previously thought, according to a report received by the Post late yesterday. Drawing on data from three ministries as well as the National Committee for Disaster Management (NCDM), the assessment raises ...

With few reforms made in the past year, Cambodia ranked 138th out of 181 countries for the second consecutive year in the World Bank’s ‘Doing Business’ report released yesterday, a ranking that put it behind countries such as Syria and Sudan. The report ranks countries based ...

NGO Friends International launched a government-backed campaign yesterday to discourage visitors from participating in “orphanage tourism” in an effort to protect children from being exploited, organizers said yesterday Citing an unreleased report by Unicef and the Ministry of Social Affairs, James Sutherland, international communications coordinator for ...

The Kingdom’s cassava exports soared 94 per cent year-on-year in the first nine months of 2011, despite the recent flood devastation the agriculture sector has experienced, according to Ministry of Commerce figures. The statistics showed that Cambodia’s export of dry and fresh cassava hit about 22,652 ...

Cambodia’s banks should be largely spared the heavy damages already seen in many parts of the Kingdom’s economy, officials said yesterday, though microfinance lenders will feel some impact. Minister of Economy and Finance Keat Chhon last week revised downward the government’s gross domestic products for 2011 ...

A new lobster-breeding program could generate up to $600 million in revenues over the next five years, according to Nao Thuok, director of the Fisheries Administration at the Ministry of Agriculture Mr Thuok first mentioned the new breeding program at a meeting in Phnom Penh hosted ...

Cambodia is unlikely to meet even half of its 2015 goal to export 1 million tons of milled rice unless export and production costs are greatly reduced and more private investment goes toward the agriculture sector, according to a new World Bank study obtained Monday. The ...

Cambodia firm Overseas Cambodia Investment Corporation yesterday signed a Memorandum of Understanding with a Singapore-based company to develop a high-output rice seed factory in the Kingdom. The cooperation between major investment firm OCIC and agriculture research company Smah Prum Royal International Pte Ltd is set to ...

PHNOM PENH: Malaysia expects to minimise its dependence on imports of animal feed and lessen the impact of the global food crisis by 2020 under the reciprocal investment policy, Agriculture and Agro-based Minister Datuk Seri Noh Omar said. One such initiative under the policy was the ...

City Hall coordinated the release of 120 tons of rice in cooperation with the state-run Rural Development Bank yesterday to keep prices in the city stable amid reports that vendors were using the current floods to gouge customers. Last week, Prime Minister Hun Sen said the ...

A Malaysian firm on Saturday signed a joint agricultural agreement with property development company Paragon Corporation Cambodia worth a potential US$2 billion in exports of corn, rubber, coffee and other cash crops. Penned by Paragon Corporation Cambodia and Markmore Group Malaysia, the joint development project will ...

The Delegation of the European Union to Cambodia in collaboration with the Council for Agricultural and rural Development, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and three of the EU-funded projects (CEDAC, HKI, WHH) on October 6 organized a Food Security Project Workshop “Improving Food Security—Lessons ...

A Chinese animal feed mill officially opened at the Phnom Penh Special Economic Zone (PPSEZ) on Aug 28. It is the first animal feed mill from China and the fifth animal feed factory to operate in Cambodia Cambodia has strongly depended on the imports for animal ...

Rubber production in Cambodia is expected to increase by 245,500 tons per year by 2020, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF). MAFF Minister Chan Sarun said on Aug 30 that Cambodia will have 365,000 hectares for rubber production as the amount ...

A group from the Japanese Fish Rearing Association led by Kazuki Nishimura met with Chan Sarun, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. During the meeting Kazuki Nishimura told the minister that the Japanese Fish Rearing Association wished to introduce Japanese fresh water fish (Nishiki Koi) ...

The Kampot Pepper Association said yesterday that the price of pepper would increase in January to $8 per kg, up from $7 currently. Nguon Lay, president of the association, said that the price hike was due to strong demand from abroad and high production costs ...

Three percent of the country’s rice crops have been destroyed by flooding in provinces along the Mekong River and around the Tonle Sap lake, and another seven percent is at risk of being lost, the minister of agriculture said yesterday. New government estimates also show that ...

A rise in pig imports from Thailand and Vietnam has driven down pork prices by as much as 33 percent in the past month, leaving farmers here worried that an oversupply in the market will cut into profits. Prathna Preap, a swine market expert at USAID, ...

An emergency cabinet meeting has been called for today to discuss disaster response and prevention in the face of severe flooding that has hit many parts of the country. More than 132,000 hectares of rice paddy field have been inundated with water since flooding began earlier ...

Armed villagers from Kratie province’s Snoul district protested yesterday against district officials and a Vietnamese company they believe wants to cheat them out of their farmland. The rights to 300 hectares of land around Sre Cha commune’s Meanchey village have been highly disputed since 2008, when ...

Five hundred hectares of Mondolkiri land inside a protected wildlife sanctuary have been granted to a rubber company, sparking concerns among indigenous minorities who rely on the forest. According to a sub-decree dated August 31 and signed by Prime Minister Hun Sen, the government approved an ...

Surveys conducted by the World Wildlife Foundation have revealed that the world’s largest population of banteng, an endangered species of cattle that once thrived in the Kingdom, remains at risk due to economic land concessions and poaching inside protected areas The number of banteng in Cambodia ...