Agriculture
Agricultural commodities, processing and products
Milled rice exports fall in January
Some of Cambodia’s biggest exporters have experienced a sizeable decline in milled-rice shipments this month, with one insider putting the number as high as 40 per cent year-on-year. The waning figure stands in stark contrast to last year’s milled-rice export numbers, which increased about 22 per ...
2011 rubber prices surge 132 per cent on demand
Cambodia’s 2011 rubber exports and export prices grew by 5.5 per cent and 131 per cent respectively, according to data from the Ministry of Commerce obtained by the Post. The data shows rubber exports last year totalled 46,727 tonnes, compared to 30,040 tonnes in 2010. Export ...
Damages from mine to cost at least $4m
The government said yesterday that a gold mine in Kompong Cham province that has damaged about 1 square km of land with chemical waste would cost at least $4 million to clean up. Speaking at a workshop in Phnom Penh on revenue transparency, Sim Sisokhaly, director ...
Thailand's second-largest rice exporter invests $47m in mills
Asia Golden Rice (AGR), Thailand’s second-largest rice exporter, will invest $47 million to build milling plants in Cambodia capable of processing up to 1 million tons of rice per year, according to a company representative and reports from the Thai news media yesterday. “This will be ...
Kingdom takes steps to attract milled-rice buyers
A nationwide survey was under way by the Ministry of Commerce’s Rice Exporter Union to measure Cambodia’s milled-rice industry in order to give international buyers an accurate picture of the Kingdom’s current capacity, insiders said yesterday. Although data for the survey was still being collected, those ...
Investment needed to hit rice target
Cambodia needs at least another $120 million of investment in rice mills if it is to meet the government’s 2015 target of exporting 1 million tons of rice, Agriculture Minister Chan Sarun said yesterday. While rice exports from Cambodia this year have seen a significant increase ...
Cambodian rice output grows in 2011 despite floods
Cambodia’s total paddy rice output reached 8.4 million tonnes in 2011, up from 8.25 million tonnes last year, according an initial assessment by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. Provincial MAFF officials from across the Kingdom met in Phnom Penh on Saturday, when data was ...
Shine on Pailin gems seen fading
THE precious stone industry in Pailin province is facing bankruptcy as supplies dwindle and locals turn to agriculture as their main source of revenue, provincial authorities told the Post. Pailin, long known for its rubies, sapphires and other precious stones, now depends on foreign imports to ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011122253558/Business/shine-on-pailin-gems-seen-fading.html
IMF cuts 2011 growth outlook to below 6%
Damage to Cambodia’s rice crop from widespread flooding earlier this year will likely cause economic growth to fall below 6 percent, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which yesterday offered the lowest gross domestic product (GDP) prediction so far In a statement, the IMF chose ...
New plant a benefit for cassava crop
An ethanol plant planned for Cambodia’s Banteay Meanchey province would push local production of the crop, as well as decreased reliance on foreign markets, officials and cassava farmers said yesterday. Construction on the joint venture between a Chinese firm and Cambodia’s National Company for Development will ...
First 10 months of year's exports up 32.9 percent
Exports from Cambodia increased 32.9 percent to $3.7 billion during the first ten months of this year compared to the same period in 2010, according to data released by the Ministry of Commerce yesterday. Milled rice exports saw the biggest increase with a 161.5 percent jump ...
Chinese bank launches branch in Phnom Penh
The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) launched its first branch in Cambodia yesterday, bringing the total number of commercial banks in the country to 30. Speaking at the inauguration of the branch in Phnom Penh, Finance Minister Keat Chhon made an appeal to ICBC ...
Rubber industry growth a priority
Cambodia aimed to become one of the region’s main rubber producers over the next few years despite the industry’s low international recognition, officials said during the second Global Rubber Conference, held in Phnom Penh on Friday. To that end, the Kingdom had encouraged companies and investors ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011112852994/Business/rubber-industry-growth-a-priority.html
As rice harvest begins, grain's price soars
As the harvest of the wet season rice crop gets under way in many parts of the country, rice prices have started to increase, rice millers said yesterday. They said prices were now up about 15 percent compared to the same time last year, but ...
Hun Sen announces one-stop office for rice
Prime Minister Hun Sen Mnounced yesterday that the government would create a one-stop service office for rice millers and exporters in order to reduce red tape and help the country reach its lofty export target of a million tons of milled rice by 2015. “We cannot ...
Renewable energy to power Takeo milling plant
A Japan energy company yesterday said it planned to build a rice mill fuelled by rice husks in Cambodia’s Takeo province. New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding with the Kingdom’s Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy (MIME) confirming cooperation ...
Banks offer millions to millers
Two Cambodian banks have set aside US$200 million for loans to bolster the Kingdom’s struggling rice-milling industry, officials said yesterday. The move comes as the Cambodian government has called on the private sector to boost loans to rice millers during the harvest season as a way ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011112352914/Business/banks-offer-millions-to-millers.html
World Bank cuts growth outlook to 6%
Devastating floods as well as the economic slowdown in Europe and the US have prompted the World Bank to lower its outlook for Cambodia’s economic growth this year to 6 percent, down from a previous projection of 6.8 percent. In its economic update for the region ...
Rebuilding underway as floods recede
All families evacuated during the worst floods Cambodia has seen in more than a decade have now returned home, the floodwaters have receded and relief efforts are coming to a close, officials said yesterday. Two hundred and fifty people, at least half of them children, died ...
Milled rice exports climb, prices soar
Cambodia’s milled rice exports increased by more than seven per cent year-on-year during the first 10 months of 2011, while international demand for the grain drove up rice prices by nearly 200 per cent, commerce officials said. The Kingdom exported more than 136,000 tonnes of milled ...
Cambodia-South Korea trade jumps 45%
Bilateral trade between Cambodia and South Korea jumped more than 40 per cent year-on-year through September, according to the Korea Trade Investment Promotion Agency. Total trade between January and September reached $387 million, according to KOTRA, up 45 per cent from $267 million during the year-ago ...
Issues with Kingdom's rice exports
Cambodian rice trader TTY Corporation has said the Kingdom cannot meet a new 200,000-tonne export quota for shipping high-quality rice to China. State-owned Sinograin’s order for three varieties of milled fragrant rice was a deviation from an agreement struck with TTY in August, TTY deputy director-general ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011111552751/Business/issues-with-kingdoms-rice-exports.html
Prey Long forest campaigners march on rubber plantation
Angered by the clearing of parts of Prey Long forest, several hundred indigenous minority villagers marched on a rubber plantation here in northern Kompong Thom province yesterday night and breached its gate in order to demand that the company stop cutting down trees in the ...
Tariffs on rice slashed to help fuel exports
As part of a continuing push to bolster rice exports, the government has agreed to waive all export tariffs on milled rice and will also eliminate value-added tax (VAT) on paddy rice purchased domestically. According to a promulgation signed last month by Finance Minister Keat Chhon, ...