Agricultural commodities, processing and products

Representatives of evicted families and a sugarcane plantation owned by a prominent CPP senator announced an agreement on Thursday that provides compensation ranging from $500 to $5,000 to eligible villagers after a five-year battle over land. ...

Though the rice-planting season has started and nationwide rice cultivation this month has been higher than planned, farmers are worried that adverse weather events caused by climate change will ruin their crops. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries’ planning and statistics department, the ...

Meanchey district police and security guards yesterday clashed with about 70 Koh Kong province villagers at the capital’s Samaki Rainsy pagoda, shoving and pushing them as they tried to make their way to the Ministry of Land Management. ...

More than 600 kilograms of ivory were seized on Friday at Sihanoukville Autonomous Port, but the provincial court has yet to receive a complaint about the case from customs officials, a provincial prosecutor told Khmer Times yesterday. ...

Just three months since starting production, Cambodia’s largest sugar mill is sitting idle due to a shortage of its primary input sugarcane, a provincial Agriculture Ministry official said yesterday. ...

As the price of natural rubber tumbles due to a slowdown in the global economy and falling demand for the commodity, the Kingdom’s hard hit rubber industry investors are now calling on the government to revise export taxes. ...

Commerce Minister Pan Sorasak lobbied his visiting Chinese counterpart, Gao Hucheng, yesterday to consider doubling Cambodia’s annual rice export quota to China while also proposing a host of agricultural trade agreements.   ...

An industry analyst has issued a dire forecast for Cambodia’s rice sector, claiming the long-grain “white gold” that has been credited with lifting millions of Cambodia’s farmers out of abject poverty, and which seems a natural fit for the Kingdom’s agrarian workforce, is on a ...

A Chinese agricultural company has agreed to establish a banana plantation in Cambodia, according to a senior government official. ...

Though the Kingdom’s existing salt farms in Kampot and Kep produce enough salt to support domestic consumption, industry experts, however, are worried that a flood of the vital commodity from neighboring countries will spoil the market for Cambodian producers. ...

The export of crude palm oil (CPO) from agro-industrial conglomerate Mong Reththy Group reached 13,000 metric tons in the first six months this year, up a huge 116 percent compared to the same period last year. ...

The National Assembly’s (NA) Second Commission on Economics, Finance, Banking and Auditing yesterday asked the European Union (EU) to increase rice and clothing import quotas from Cambodia, after a discussion on EU subsidies to the Kingdom. ...

More than 200kg of old meatballs were seized by the government’s Camcontrol in a crackdown on goods past their use-by dates in Pailin on Wednesday, according to the Ministry of Commerce. ...

The private sector’s campaign to develop a single recognisable umbrella brand for Cambodia’s premium varieties of fragrant rice looks increasingly tenuous after a government body voiced objections to the name selected, and argued instead that the country should market each variety of rice under its ...

The specter of insolvency looms large over the businesses of rice millers in the Kingdom as the government drags its foot in providing emergency loans to bail out the sector, currently reeling from the aftereffects of a severe drought and facing stiff competition from low-grade ...

The seeds of confusion in the rice industry have been sown further. After endorsing the Phka Romduol and Phka Chansensor varieties to be the Kingdom’s own umbrella brands for fragrant and premium rice last week, the National Standards Council (NSC) said yesterday it did not ...

Cambodia’s rice industry has been advised by the European Union (EU) to seek other markets and not just concentrate its exports to Europe, as it moves from a low-income country in its least developed country (LDC) status to a lower-middle income nation, amid calls to ...

The National Standards Council (NSC) has endorsed the Phka Romduol and Phka Chansensor varieties to be the Kingdom’s own umbrella brands for fragrant and premium rice, rejecting the Cambodian Rice Federation’s “Angkor Malis” brand name. ...

As the demand for organic rice in European and United States markets keeps growing, many local rice millers and exporters are moving quickly and signing contract farming deals to supply them with the premium product. ...

The commerce minister has once again called on Thailand to consider giving access to Cambodian agricultural products to transit to the Thai port of Laem Chabang before being exported to a third country. The minister also called for a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to be signed ...

Export of crude palm oil from Mong Reththy Group, the Kingdom’s only active producer, doubled during the first half of the year despite prices showing no indication of improving, a company executive said yesterday. ...

Thailand’s Sahacogen (Chonburi) Pcl, an independent producer and distributor of electricity and steam, will form a joint venture with Saha Patthana Inter Holding Pcl, the investment arm of Thailand’s Saha Group, to invest in biomass power plants in Cambodia and Myanmar, according to online business ...

Cambodia’s apex rice industry body held its annual general meeting on Saturday, with its members unanimously re-electing its well-connected incumbent president, Sok Puthyvuth, for a second term in what some are calling a dress rehearsal for his political ascendancy. ...

The government has come to the rescue of rice millers and exporters, currently in the throes of a serious financial crisis, with loans of between $20 and $30 million to the Cambodia Rice Federation (CRF). This is to help the sector purchase rice from farmers ...