Agriculture
Agricultural commodities, processing and products
Luxury Wood Haul Found on Rubber Concession
Authorities in Ratanakkiri province arrested and charged two men with illegal logging after discovering about 4,000 pieces of luxury wood on an economic land concession held by a Vietnamese rubber company, officials said. [Deputy Provincial Forestry Administration Chief Phan Phoeun] said that although the wood ...
Land-Titling Project Denied Minorities of Property Rights
Hundreds of indigenous minorities in Ratanakkiri province are being made worse off by Prime Minister Hun Sen’s land-titling scheme which, rather than securing their property rights, is contributing to the loss of their ancestral lands, according to a new report. The report supports complaints aired since ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/land-titling-project-denied-minorities-of-property-rights-19528/
Stronger ties with Cambodia sought ahead of rice-trading zone
Thailand will forge closer ties with Cambodia and other neighbouring countries to increase competency in rice trading and boost the bargaining power of Asean countries by setting up a rice-trading zone soon. Also, Thailand will expand crop cooperation to cassava to raise farm incomes in the ...
Cambodia growth to continue, but development faces shortfalls
Despite steady economic growth in recent years, Cambodia remains one of the least-developed countries in the Asia-Pacific region and faces the challenge of diversifying its economy and moving up the production value chain, the U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) ...
Lauren Crothers, P. 20
http://The Cambodia Daily
Salt Harvest Below Forecast
The Kep-Kompot Salt Producers Community says salt production fell nearly 50 per cent below forecasts because of early rainfall, which is assumed to end salt harvesting for the year. Prime Minister Hun Sen, however, has stepped in to ensure that price remains stable. Hun Sen ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013041965112/Business/salt-harvest-below-forecast.html
Pepper Crop in Kompong Cham Hit by Hot Weather
As this year’s pepper harvest gets under way, farmers in Kompong Cham province are expecting lower yields due to severe hot weather in recent months. Yin Sopha, executive director of the Dar Memot Development Agriculture Pepper Cooperative, said the hot weather and lack of rain ...
Tate & Lyle Defends Sugar Plantation Deal In Koh Kong
A U.K. firm being sued by 200 Cambodian farmers over the loss of their land to two sugar plantations has defended its business dealings, claiming that the affected families were dealt with legally and were properly compensated for the loss of their properties. Local farmers ...
Firm Announces Rice Energy Plan in Cambodia
A U.S.-based energy company has announced that it is planning a biomass project using genetically modified rice in Cambodia, in a purportedly massive deal about which little information has been made public. In a statement posted online Thursday, Sino Bioenergy Corp. said it had signed a ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/firm-announces-rice-energy-plan-in-cambodia-19105/
Koh Kong Sugar Firm Makes Offer to Return Disputed Land
The Thai owners of a pair of sugar plantations in Koh Kong province accused of forcing hundreds of farmers off their land will give the land back if it can be proved that those evicted legally own the land, rights workers and a village representative ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/koh-kong-sugar-firm-makes-offer-to-return-disputed-land-18770/
Farmers Sue UK Sugar Firm For Millions
Hundreds of Cambodian families are suing the British sugar firm Tate & Lyle in one of the U.K’s highest courts over a pair of plantations in Koh Kong province they accuse of violently forcing them off their land and out of their homes. The British law ...
Vendors: food prices rise before Khmer New Year
The price of meat will be higher during Khmer New Year, with prices rising between 2,000 riel and 3,000 riel ($0.50 and $0.75) per kilogram, according to vendors. Som Sreymom, a pork vendor at Kandal market, said the price of pork would hit as much as ...
Firms accused of illegal logging in Ratanakkiri
Families in Ratanakiri province yesterday logged a complaint with rights group Adhoc accusing a trio of economic land concession (ELC) owners of illegally logging outside of their concession areas and felling their vital resin and palm oil trees. Chan Naroun said she was among 29 families ...
Cambodia begins first agricultural census
Cambodia’s first-ever agricultural census is under way, tasked with addressing the lack of reliable statistical information on one of the Kingdom’s most crucial economic sectors. The census is being taken by the government with assistance from the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in two ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013041165027/Business/cambodia-begins-first-agricultural-census.html
Betargo readies for the contruction of its 18,000t per annum feed mill in Cambodia
Betagro (Cambodia) readies for the construction of its new feed mill in Phnom Penh SEZ. The feed mill is to be constructed in the capital’s Special Economic Zone, located 12km from the city center. The company is investing USD$17.2 million in the new project. The plant construction ...
Duty-Free Sugar Exports to EU Hit $13 Million
The European Union (E.U.) last year continued to import millions of dollars worth of duty-free sugar from Cambodian plantations that have forced hundreds of families off their land despite calls from European lawmakers for the trade benefits to end, according to the latest E.U. data. Thailand’s ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/duty-free-sugar-exports-to-eu-hit-13-million-18114/
U.S. imports large volume of organic rice
An unusual report shows that organic rice buyers in the U.S. are getting a large percentage of their rice from Cambodia. The Cambodian Center for Study and Development in Agriculture (CEDAC) exported 114 tonnes of organic jasmine rice to the U.S. in the first quarter of ...
http://www.agprofessional.com/news/US-imports-large-volume-of-organic-rice-201976661.html
Forest activists say lives threatened
Two anti-logging activists who went into hiding yesterday have alleged that they received death threats from police because they set fire to logs cut from a protected area in Kratie province. The activists have been leading an increasingly confrontational campaign against Vietnamese firm Binh Phuoc Kratie ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013040964966/National/forest-activists-say-lives-threatened.html
Local palm oil exporter targets EU
Mong Reththy Group (MRG), Cambodia’s largest exporter of palm oil, hopes to expand its exports to European markets this year. Mong Reththy, president of the firm, said the quota-free and duty-free trade frameworks provided by European governments factored heavily into the decision. “About 50 per cent of ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013040964951/Business/local-palm-oil-exporter-targets-eu.html
Rubber Fails: Court Halts Operations Of R’kiri Firm
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Thursday temporarily suspended the operations of Vietnamese rubber concessionaire Day Dong Yoeung, which has clashed with Jarai ethnic minorities in Ratanakkiri province’s O’Yadav district since late last year, after its previous manager was jailed on fraud charges, district governor ...
Detained British Biofuels Chairman Proclaims His Innocence
The British former Chairman of a troubled biofuel firm, who is in Phnom Penh’s Prey Sar prision on forgery charges, has claimed he is the victim in the case for which he is awaiting trial. Gregg Fryett was arrested in Phnom Penh on March 23rd and ...
PH to import rice from Cambodia
Just recently, the Philippines government signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) on rice trade with the Kingdom of Cambodia to pave the way for the National Food Authority (NFA) to import rice from that country for the next two years. The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) ...
http://www.mb.com.ph/article.php?aid=6537&sid=1&subid=1#.UWIeFaKj2xA
Cambodia's rice export up 148 pct in Q1
Cambodia recorded a sharp rise in milled rice export in the first three months of 2012 thanks to increasing international market demand and more investment in post- harvest technologies, Prime Minister Hun Sen said Friday. A commerce report showed that the country exported 95,230 tons ...
http://www.asean-china-center.org/english/2013-04/07/c_132290214.htm
Villagers getting ready for DM Group hearing
The Ratanakkiri Provincial Court has issued letters to 11 ethnic Tampuon villagers from the province’s Lumphat district, instructing them to prepare for a hearing over accusations of using violence on the property of rubber company DM Group. DM Group first began setting up rubber plantations in ...
Village forest activists strike back at 3 firms
A community forest patrol group trying to fight the destruction of protected forest in Kratie province’s Snuol district have, for the second time in two weeks, seized equipment from those they accuse of illegal logging. About 100 people from Svay Chreah, Snuol, Sre Cha, Pi Thnou ...