Agriculture and fishing

Lion Forest Industries Berhad will seek to acquire a 9,995 hectare concession in Cambodia, the latest in a number of Malaysian firms eyeing the Kingdom to increase land banks this year. The firm aims to cultivate rubber and palm oil on the proposed concession in Preah ...

Coffee plantations in Cambodia’s northeast are struggling to keep up with rising international demand for the increasingly lucrative beans, farmers and traders said. Orders for Cambodian-grown coffee beans from countries such as Japan and Korea as well as domestic demand has increased rapidly, while prices have ...

Disputes between owners at prominent rice miller Loran Import Export Company have been resolved, with Chief Executive Officer Lim Bunheng set to buy the stake held by prominent media personality Soy Sopheap and his associates, company officials said yesterday. “We have agreed to end all disputes ...

Cambodian officials yesterday touted the potential for green energy to meet its goal of bringing electricity to 100 percent of households by 2020. The Kingdom was looking to develop solar energy, small-scale hydropower and biomass-fuelled power to meet the target, said Ministry of Industry, Mines and ...

Environment Minister Mok Mareth yesterday defended the recent surge of economic land concessions granted by his ministry inside the country’s enviornmental conservation areas, saying that they would do more to help the areas than hurt them. Mr Mareth’s comments came while responding to questions at ...

Mong Reththy Group has suspended a $115 million sugar plantation project that has been three years in the works, CPP Senator Mong Reththy said yesterday. According to Mr Reththy, the suspension is due to “internal” issues facing the French partner in the project, Groupe Sucres ...

Describing a 5,000-hectare land dispute between Koh Kong villagers and a sugar company owned by CPP Senator Ly Yong Pgat as “a complicated case,” Koh Kong Provincial Court has decided to try it before a three-judge panel, a lawyer for the villagers said yesterday. The ...

Rubber exports from Cambodia increased 84 percent in the first six months of 2011 compared to the same period last year, according to figures released by Camcontrol, the government’s import-export inspection agent. Cambodia exported 21,511 tons of rubber, worth $102 million, during the first half ...

Crocodile farmers are feeling the pinch after a year of volatile crocodile prices and market demand. Despite the spike in crocodile prices late last year – which followed on the heels of worrying lows between 2005 and 2007 – demand for the live exports of ...

Local authorities told residents of Kratie province’s Snuol district that they would not allow a private company to plant crops on their land during a meeting yesterday. Poeng Vin, chief of Pi Thnou commune, said that local authorities would measure land belonging to hundreds of ...

North Korea aims to import rice from Cambodia, as well as explore for mineral resources, officials said yesterday. High-ranking officials from Pyongyang met with their Cambodian counterparts in Phnom Penh yesterday, signing agreements on economic and trade cooperation.The two countries had signed seven cooperation agreements beginning ...

In Svay Rieng province villagers are in their fourth day of protests after authorities refused to meet with them to discuss a land concession that Metapheap Company has received in order to open a rubber plantation. The company was granted a 1,230 hectare land concession ...

Canadia Bank Plc has begun construction on a rice processing facility worth $8 million as Prime Minister Hun Sen aims to export 1 million tonnes of milled by rice a year by 2015. The new mill is being built in Takeo province and the rice ...

Villagers in Svay Rieng province from 10 villages have taken part in an armed protest against the granting of a land concession in the forest that will turn it into a rubber plantation. The villagers claim to have been on the land since 1979 and ...

32,000 macaques primates have been exported from Cambodia over a 4 year period according to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. The Species Survival Network has said that there is a significant trade in the animal and that it is most commonly used ...

Cambodia’s economic growth is expected to reach 8.7 percent this year as a result of the growth within the garment sector and the increased prices for agricultural products. The Economic Institute of Cambodia (EIC) has said that the garment industry, including the manufacturing of shoes, ...

60 villagers in Svay Rieng province demonstrated to prevent the Mittapheap Rubber Company from moving its machinery into the area. The company has plans to clear 500 hectares of land in what the villagers claim is their protected community forest. Adhoc is investigating the claims ...

According to human rights group Adhoc, five agro-farming concessions granted to Chinese firms are adversely affecting 3,000 families in Preah Vihear province. The concessions have come with warnings of possible land disputes and potential protests. Prime Minister Hun Sen granted the economic land concessions to ...

Four districts and over a thousand families are facing a drought in Battambang province. More rain is needed as approximately 70 percent of the province’s 250,000 hectares of rice paddies have been planted. Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries chief of the rice department Ngin ...

Rice growing provinces such as Battambang, Kandal and Takeo are suffering a drought as monsoon rains have not affected the areas. Harvests are expected to fail or fall short of expectations if rain does not fall on the farmland within the next few weeks. 2,000 ...

Earlier this month Prime Minister Hun Sen approved five more economic land concessions totally 44,780 hectares in the Preah Vihear province. Largely distributed to agri-business companies there is fear that the concessions will lead to deforestation. Heng Roy International, Heng You International, Lan Feng International, ...

Businessmen Tuy Vanny and Seth Rin are embroiled in a land dispute with 50 families have had an objection filed against their allowing others to farm the land. The right to farm the land was only granted on July 7 to Mr. Vanny and Mr. ...

Sino Grain, a Chinese agriculture company, has come to Cambodia seeking to import milled rice to China. Minister of Commerce Cham Prasidh has encouraged the company to invest in Cambodia by building a rice processing plant in the country and not merely exporting grain. A ...

Senator Ly Yong Phat, owner of the Phnom Penh Palm Sugar and Kampong Speu Sugar companies, has released a statement as a result of US diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks that describe him as “The King of Koh Kong”. He answers such questions as why ...