Agricultural commodities, processing and products

The Cambodian Center for Human Rights says that a company with a controversial economic land concession in Koh Kong province banned the centre’s officers from photographing the area and ordered police to grab their cameras. Officers from CCHR traveled to Sre Ambel district on December 14 ...

KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 18) : Petronas Chemical Group Bhd (PetChem) said that its top and bottom line growth was going to be in “healthy mode” next year, with prices of its chemical products seen to be firming up. Speaking at a media briefing on Tuesday, its ...

Ethnic minority Kreung villagers filed a complaint against commune level authorities on Saturday for allegedly accepting money from a businessman to clear their ancestral land for a new rubber plantation in Ratanakkiri province, local NGOs and villagers said. ...

Representatives from over 100 Cambodian and Vietnamese companies gathered in Phnom Penh to seek agricultural investment opportunities between the two countries. Participants listened to reports on trade and co-operation opportunities in agriculture, forestry, aquaculture and seafood, delivered by representatives from both governments. They discussed Viet Nam’s ...

A NEW [sic] organisation for rice exporters was launched in Cambodia this weekend in an effort to transform the industry as it seeks to meet ambitious export targets. The Federation of Cambodian Rice Exporters (FCRE) was inaugurated on Saturday, and says it will gain full authorization ...

The government-backed Rural Development Bank has handed a $4.5 million loan to a company planning to invest in Cambodia’s efforts to export more milled rice. Rural Development Bank chairman Son Kuon Thor said yesterday that the bank was giving the loan to a new company ...

More than 250 ethnic Jarai families living in Ratanakkiri province’s O’Yadaw district filed a complaint with rights group Adhoc yesterday, after local officials demanded that the villagers apply for private land titles to protect their property from two Vietnamese rubber companies currently clearing their land, ...

Provincial forestry administration officials in Ratanakkiri have dismissed allegations of illegal logging by community residents and chalked the deforestation up to legitimate clearing. A cursory examination of the land in question yesterday seemed to back the company’s claims, Ly Sophan, a team worker at the provincial ...

As Cambodia’s rice harvest gets into full swing, the government said yesterday that it expects this year’s crop to exceed last year’s, despite fears that drought would limit the yield. Minister of Agriculture Chan Sarun said that farmers had already harvested more than 3 million tons ...

The Alliance of Rice Producers Exporters of Cambodia (ARPEC) will release US$2 million after December 15th to its members in nine provinces so they can buy paddy rice before the harvest season ends and stocks been depleted. He said the pay out is being drawn from ...

A final report from Thailand’s human rights commission on the alleged rights violations of a Thai company involved in two Cambodian sugar plantations is expected by late January, a member of the commission said. In July, the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand said its investigation ...

Idemitsu Kosan Co. said Monday it has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Cambodian government to promote biofuel production in the Southeast Asian country. The move is part of plans by the Japanese energy firm to produce bioethanol out of cassava, a type of potato, ...

Economic land concessions granted to a pair of Vietnamese companies in Ratanakkiri’s O’Yadav district were endangering the traditional lifestyles of as many as 200 ethnic-minority families, villagerstold the Post yesterday. As the companies actively cleared forest to make room for the eventual rubber plantations, the government ...

The Kep-Kamport Salt Producers Community expressed concern about the production of salt this year not reaching its forecast due to the late-starting season and the lack of labour to work in the fields. Um Chhun, director of the administration office in Kep-Kamport Salt Producers Community, said ...

On the second day of his two-day visit to Ratanakkiri, Prime Minister Hun Sen on Friday cajoled indigenous minority members about their ready adoption of new technology amid the shift away from traditional ways of life, and extolled the benefits of rubber plantations over their ...

Cambodian Commerce Minister Cham Prasidh sees great potential for US companies that want to invest in agriculture, where he says they can do legitimate business relatively free from the graft as Cambodia makes anti-corruption headway. Cham Prasidh was in Washington last week, where he and other ...

A new report on land grabbing around the world highlights Cambodia as a prime example of the ill effect of the growing global appetite for farmland by industrial scale operations. Released Wednesday in Stockholm by three Swedish NGOs, The Race for Land offers Cambodia as one ...

CPP Senator and business tycoon Ly Yong Phat has convinced to more families in Koh Kong province to take a cash payout in exchange for dropping out of a lawsuit involving two local sugarcane plantations he once co-owned, official said. More that 200 families in Sre ...

Farmers in Pailin province have complained about a shortage of workers during this year’s corn and cassava harvesting season. Meas Loeun, team leader of Momean Moy community’s 38 teams in Pailin, said the shortage of workers to help harvest corn and cassava is a major challenge ...

Cambodia’s rubber price is expected to fall further in coming years while government projects aimed at doubling rubber resin production will take effect by 2015, according to the latest figures from the Rubber General Department. Mak Kimhong, president of the Cambodia Rubber Association and owner of ...

More than 100 people in Kratie province staged a peaceful protest on Sunday after excavators mobilized by a South Korean timber firm tried to clear and demarcate concession land, a commune official said yesterday. The company, Think Biotech, was granted 34,000 hectares of land on May ...

Following our investigation which highlighted allegations of human rights abuses in Cambodia’s sugar industry, activists are stepping up their campaign against sugar companies buying from the region. The call to boycott sugar company Tate and Lyle over allegations of illegal land seizures and human rights ...

Cambodian and Vietnamese Defense Ministries on Friday signed two documents relevant to a joint venture for establishing a quarry and a rubber plantation project in Cambodia. According to a document briefed to reporters at the signing ceremony, the two deals included a quarry site establishment in ...

The growing market for timber in China is leading to widespread logging around the world, including in Cambodia, according to a report released yesterday. The report from London-based NGO the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) – entitled Appetite for Destruction: China’s trade in illegal timber – outlines ...