Agricultural commodities, processing and products

High production costs and a lack of government assistance is keeping rice farmers near the poverty line despite unprecedented growth in the sector, according to a new study released by local microfinance institution Intean Poalroath Rongroeurng (IPR). The independent study, conducted by two Cambodian researchers ...

Stevia Nutra Corporation, a Canadian agro-business company, has announced its decision to grow stevia in Cambodia’s Kampong Speu province. The company will grow the plant, whose leaves are used as a sweetener or sugar substitute, on just over 20 hectares of land close to Phnom Penh. Stevia Nutra has incorporated Mighty MekongAgro Industries Co. Ltd, ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen made a bold pledge to the hundreds of thousands of Cambodian villagers fighting companies for their homes yesterday, ordering that in every economic land concession across the country, space must be provided for those they would displace. But last month’s royal book ...

Revenues generated from rubber exports dropped 25 percent to $41 million in the first four months of the year compared to the same period in 2011, as rubber prices on the international market plummeted, according to data released yesterday by the Ministry of Commerce. While rubber ...

A biofuel company is currently under investigation for fraud in the U.K. after millions of dollars of investors’ money was spent on a jatropha plantation in Banteay Meanchey province that never produced even a single drop of biodiesel. The company, London-based Sustainable Agro Energy PLC, had ...

Large quantities of cheap green bean exports from Thailand are driving down prices of the product in Kompong Cham province by as much as 40 percent compared to the same period last year and forcing farmers to grow other crops, officials and farmers said yesterday. The ...

The Koh Kong Provincial Court summonsed 23 villagers from Chikor Leu commune to present themselves – and any relevant documents – at a July 12 hearing with representatives of the two sugar companies that bulldozed their farmland and evicted them from their homes in 2006. ...

One and a half million children still toil as laborers in Cambodia’s fisheries, brick factories, agricultural plantations and construction sites, government officials said yesterday at an event held at Phnom Penh’s Wat Botum ahead of World Day Against Child Labor on Tuesday. The government has set ...

Phnom Penh Autonomous Port plans to buy a rice-polishing machine from China, and will also look to build a rice storage facility in Kandal province. These moves, officials said, were intended to push along Cambodia’s rice trade during a period of uncertainty for the industry. Facilities ...

A 144-tonne shipment of Cambodian fragrant rice will leave Phnom Penh for Fuzhou, China on Saturday, the first Chinese order for the Kingdom’s milled rice after a recent government agreement was reached on Chinese regulation. Mekong Oryza Trading received the order months earlier ...

A factory supplying shoes for German sports brand Puma has experienced no mass faintings and seen overall productivity improve since it started providing meals to its workers last year, a Puma representative and a factory official said yesterday. Workers at Huey Chuen (Cambodia) Corp. Ltd. in ...

Heavy rainfall in April and May has cut salt production by a third in Kep and Kampot provinces even though farmers extended the harvest season there by a month, farmers said yesterday. Last year, farmers were able to produce about 90,000 tons of salt on 4,500 ...

Climate change was named as the reason for Cambodian salt production this year declining about 15 per cent, experts said yesterday. ...

Cambodia’s inflation rose by 5.49 per cent year-on-year in the first quarter of the year, due to increases in food and fuel prices, according to the monthly data from the National Institute of Statistics compiled by the Post. However, economists and government officials said they were ...

The real growth rate of the service sector has been revised upwardly by half a percentage point against our previous prediction to 5.4 percent year-on-year in 2012, on the back of higher growth expected in the local trade and transport subsectors. The growth outlook of this sector in 2013 is quite ...

Local rice miller Mega Green said it planned to export about 240 tons of milled rice to the Chinese market by the end of June – a second round of test exports to Cambodia’s northern neighbour. Renne Outh, owner of Mega Green Imex Cambodia, told the ...

Cambodia is planning to send a second consignment of 40 tons of milled rice to China as a part of the approval process for rice exports to China. In April, China had rejected a sample consignment of about 48 tons ...

A better outlook for the price of Cambodian major crops, especially cassava and soybeans, drives the upward revision of growth of the other crops subsector. This in turn leads to a marginal upward revision of growth of the agriculture sector to an annualized rate of 4.6 percent, from 4.5 percent in our January ...

Canadia Bank will launch a rice mill in Cambodia’s Takeo province in October, a move that insiders said could help curb the flow of unmilled rice to neighbouring Vietnam. Bank officials yesterday said they will buy US$3 million in milling equipment, and the total cost of ...

(The Company), an Agro-Management company focused on stevia agronomics, announced that it has incorporated Health Power Trading Company Ltd., a wholly owned BVI subsidiary company and Mighty Mekong Agro Industries Co. Ltd., a Cambodian based wholly owned subsidiary. This strategic move by Stevia Nutra will allow the Company to capitalize on significant labour and technical advantages as ...

Guinea will buy 40,000 tons milled rice product from Cambodia in the near future, Eang Sophalet, assistant to Prime Minister Hun Sen said on Friday after the meeting between Samdech Prime Minister Hun Sen and visiting president of Guinea His Excellency Professor Alpha Conde at peace palace in Phnom Penh. ...

Cambodian government officials and private sector leaders have met with Chinese officials to negotiate a US$200 million loan for the development of Cambodia’s rice sector, an official said on Tuesday. The new loan would focus on the development of the agricultural sector, primarily the construction ...

Villagers in Koh Kong province involved in a long-running land dispute with two sugar cane plantations linked to CPP Senator Ly Yong Phat handed out petitions to passing motorists along National Road 48 demanding their land back. It was a change of pace for the villagers, ...

A new partnership looking to export Cambodian rice to world markets formed yesterday afternoon at Sunway Hotel The Alliance of Rice Producers and Exporters of Cambodia (ARPEC) elected their first executive committee, which includes office holders Phou Puy, Hann Khieng, Oknha Kong Sang, Sok Cheng, Seng ...