Pepsi sugar draws ire
Investors in drinks giant PepsiCo have filed a shareholders resolution urging the company to account for alleged land-rights violations in Cambodia. The 14 shareholders – including Oxfam – are increasing the pressure on PepsiCo following Coca-Cola’s pledge earlier this month of “zero tolerance” towards land grabs. An ...
Daniel Pye
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/pepsi-sugar-draws-ire
Thai Sugar Firm Meets With Koh Kong Evictees
Koh Kong Sugar has offered to settle its yearslong dispute with Cambodian families who accuse its plantations of stealing their land, but the farmers remain wary of being able to secure a fair deal. The firm, a subsidiary of Thailand’s Khon Kaen Sugar Industry Limited (KSL), ...
Zsombor Peter and Chhorn Chansy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/thai-sugar-firm-meets-with-koh-kong-evictees-46811/
Coca-Cola To Probe Seven-Year-Old Cambodian Land Grab Case
Declaring that it has “zero tolerance” towards land grabbing, Coca-Cola has agreed to investigate a long running case in Cambodia where villagers are seeking court action against a company accused of seizing their land to make way for plantations linked to the supply of sugar ...
Eurasia Review News Staff
http://www.eurasiareview.com/09112013-coca-cola-probe-seven-year-old-cambodian-land-grab-case/
Oxfam accuses Coke and Pepsi of taking land from the poor
Land covering an area the size of Italy has been taken from indigenous communities around the world by suppliers to the biggest names in the food and drinks industry, according to a major new report. Coca-Cola and PepsiCo are among the companies criticised by Oxfam for ...
Jamie Merrill
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/oxfam-accuses-coke-and-pepsi-of-taking-land-from-the-poor-8852161.html
EU Under Fire for Policy Linked to Land Grabbing in Cambodia
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 ...
The Irrawaddy News Magazine Staff
http://www.irrawaddy.org/archives/44202
Newspaper threatened over child labour story
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 ...
Sean Teehan and Cheang Sokha
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/newspaper-threatened-over-child-labour-story
Startup Promises a Future for Former Boeng Kak Residents
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 ...
Devon Geary and Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/startup-promises-a-future-for-former-boeng-kak-residents-41532/
New container terminal may not deliver for Cambodia
Shallow draft, lack of rail connectivity, uneasy relations with Vietnam, and the general slowdown may leave LM 17, Cambodia’s brand new $28-million container terminal near Phnom Penh, up the strait. Even if the terminal achieves the targeted throughput of 110,000 TEUs (it has moved 70,000 so ...
Hindu Business Line News Staff
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/industry-and-economy/logistics/new-container-terminal-may-not-deliver-for-cambodia/article5061737.ece
New container terminal may not deliver for Cambodia
Shallow draft, lack of rail connectivity, uneasy relations with Vietnam, and the general slowdown may leave LM 17, Cambodia’s brand new $28-million container terminal near Phnom Penh, up the strait. Even if the terminal achieves the targeted throughput of 110,000 TEUs (it has moved 70,000 so ...
Hindu Business Line News Staff
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/industry-and-economy/logistics/new-container-terminal-may-not-deliver-for-cambodia/article5061737.ece
Cambodia to return to former glory
Kuala Lumpur (The star /ANN) — A country once torn apart by war is emerging as a key investment destination for small and medium enterprises. It was once home to a great civilization. In the 12th century, the Khmer empire was South-East Asia’s largest. Angkor was ...
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=13&token=NDRhOTI5NzA0Y2E
UK Sugar Firm Investigating Child Labor Claims
U.K. sugar firm Tate & Lyle on Wednesday said it was looking into recent allegations of child labor on two plantations in Koh Kong province it has been buying sugar from since 2010, but rebuked NGOs for not bringing the claims to its attention sooner. The ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/uk-sugar-firm-investigating-child-labor-claims-36637/
Ethical Sugar Group Suspends Tate & Lyle Over Plantations
An international group that promotes the ethical sourcing of sugar for the food and energy industries has suspended the membership of U.K. sugar giant Tate & Lyle for failing to answer complaints that it was buying from Cambodian plantations accused of stealing land from local ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ethical-sugar-group-suspends-tate-lyle-over-plantations-35438/
UK Lawsuit Against Sugar Firm Heading to Trial
A lawsuit filed by families in Koh Kong province accusing U.K. sugar giant Tate & Lyle of wrongfully profiting off land stolen from them is heading to trial after efforts to mediate a settlement fell through earlier this month, according to those involved. Law firm Jones ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/uk-lawsuit-against-sugar-firm-heading-to-trial-35233/
GI benefits yet to be fully realised
While Kampot pepper and Kampong Speu palm sugar carry the brand-building Geographical Indication (GI) status, newcomers seeking the same tag continue to wait for funding to get their products off the ground. In 2010, Kampot pepper and Kampong Speu palm sugar were the first Cambodian goods ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/gi-benefits-yet-be-fully-realised
Sales of palm sugar not so sweet
Sales of Cambodia’s World Trade Organization-certified palm sugar from Kampong Speu province dipped to 12 tonnes at the end of the harvest season this year, about a 30 per cent decline from 2012. Two districts with palm trees in Kampong Speu province were granted geographical indication ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/sales-palm-sugar-not-so-sweet
Rubber Company Joins CPP Gift-Giving Ceremony in Ratanakkiri
Representatives of a Vietnamese rubber firm that has been accused of contributing to the illegal deforestation of vast tracts of land in northeast Cambodia joined local CPP-aligned government officials in Ratanakkiri province on Friday to hand out rice, salt and sugar to more than 400 ...
Group Considers Complaint Against Sugar Giant
A London-based sugar trade association aiming to promote a more ethical and sustainable industry will meet early next month to consider a request from Cambodian farmers that it eject U.K.-based sugar firm Tate & Lyle from the group unless it gives them back their land. Some ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/group-considers-complaint-against-sugar-giant-32001/
Sugar Firm Staff Protest Over Unpaid Wages
About 250 laborers working at a newly opened $90-million sugar factory complex in Kratie province-hailed by the government as a boon to Cambodia’s economy-staged a protest last Saturday morning demanding to be reimbursed for two weeks worth of unpaid wages. District governor Heng Soha acted ...
Authorities Deny Abuses at Thai Plantation Tied To CPP Senator
Oddar Meanchey province deputy governor Lon An yesterday confirmed CPP Senator Ly Yong Phat’s involvement in a trio of sugar cane plantations that rights groups took to the National Human rights Commission of Thailand last week, but denied their allegations of rights abuses. The deputy ...
Sugar firm under fire
Asia’s largest sugar company has been accused of torching hundreds of homes, orchestrating the imprisonment of a pregnant activist and using security forces to beat villagers – among a raft of other grave human rights abuses – by communities in Oddar Meanchey province. The allegations levelled ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013060366024/National/sugar-firm-under-fire.html
Vietnam invests in largest sugar project in Cambodia
The largest complex of sugarcane, ethanol and thermal power plants in Cambodia was inaugurated in Okrieng commune, Sombour district, Kratie province on May 26. Addressing the ceremony, Cambodia’s Deputy Prime Minister Yim Chay Ly emphasized that the complex inauguration in Kratie was the outcome of the ...
Trade Deal Threat Still On Table
The European union’s executive arm has responded to its parliamentarians’ concerns over rights abuses stemming from Cambodia’s economic land concessions, maintaining that, should the need arise, it “will be ready” to withdraw from its preferential trade agreements with the Kingdom. In a joint letter to concerned ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013052065716/National/trade-deal-threat-still-on-table.html
EU Won’t Investigate Land Concessions—for Now
The trade commissioner and foreign affairs representative of the European Union (E.U.) have turned down a request from 13 members of the European Parliament that they immediately investigate Cambodia’s much criticized economic land concessions, but said they were monitoring the issue closely. In a March letter ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/eu-wont-investigate-land-concessions-for-now-25194/
Cambodia Plantations Not IFC’s First Controversy
In the wake of a new report from environmental rights group Global Witness rebuking the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Deutsche Bank for investing in rubber plantations accused of illegal logging and forced evictions, both institutions have denied responsibility and deflected the blame ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/cambodia-plantations-not-ifcs-first-controversy-23793/