Agriculture
Agricultural policy and administration
Rubber prices tumble as industry panics
Cambodia’s steadily declining rubber prices have hit critically low levels that are destined to only get worse as Thailand prepares to offload huge rubber stocks, the secretary-general of the Association for Rubber Development of Cambodia said Thursday. As the price of natural rubber has paralleled a ...
Kang Sothear and George Styllis
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/rubber-prices-tumble-as-industry-panics-58889/
Sexual abuse among claims against HAGL
Sexual assault and the annihilation of sacred graveyards are among the many claims levelled at Vietnamese Rubber giant Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAGL) by villagers in Ratanakkiri province, a report by the World Bank’s investment arm reveals. In February, 17 indigenous communities that accused HAGL of ...
Daniel de Carteret
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/sexual-abuse-among-claims-against-hagl
Cambodian PM due on Friday
Prime Minister of Cambodia Hun Sen is expected to pay a 3-day official visit to Dhaka from Friday to further expanding and strengthening trade relations and cooperation in agriculture sector between the two countries. During the visit, sources said Dhaka is expected to seek long-term ...
The Daily Star
http://www.thedailystar.net/cambodian-pm-due-on-friday-23869
Kratie families march in Phnom Penh to protest evictions
Nearly 200 villagers from Kratie province gathered in Phnom Penh Monday, hoping to deliver a petition to the Cambodian Senate and other government agencies in protest of a rubber company’s development there. The villagers, from Snoul district, say a Vietnamese rubber company began developing in ...
Suy Heimkhemra,
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/kratie-families-march-in-phnom-penh-to-protest-evictions/1912760.html
Lead-up to poll saw SLCs spike
Prime Minister Hun Sen’s 2012 ban on the allocation of economic land concessions was supposed to halt the unpopular practice of turning over large swaths of property to developers. And going by the numbers last year, it worked. But in the vacuum, according to local rights ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/lead-poll-saw-slcs-spike
‘Burst’ of land disputes sees dozens of Cambodians charged: rights group
Cambodian authorities have charged nearly half as many villagers in land dispute cases in the first three months of this year as they did in all of 2013, a local rights group said Thursday, adding that most of the rows stemmed from government-granted land concessions. Following ...
Radio Free Asia News Staff
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/land-05082014175124.html
Exports of rubber up, but prices on the fall
Despite a large increase in exports during the first quarter, natural rubber producers continue to see declining revenues, as world prices fall further. The latest figures from the Ministry of Commerce show natural rubber exports grew 26 per cent during the first quarter of 2014, compared ...
Chan Muyhong
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/exports-rubber-prices-fall
Rubber company suspends projects as World Bank investigates
A World Bank-supported rubber company accused of land grabs has suspended some of its projects, as an investigation by the bank continues. The Hoang Anh Gia Lai company, which received support from the bank’s International Finance Corporation, said in a decision following an April 2 ...
Sok Khemara
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/rubber-company-suspends-projects-as-world-bank-investigates/1908775.html
Villagers’ crops destroyed over land dispute
Representatives of a community locked in a land dispute with a Vietnamese company in Kratie province returned home from Phnom Penh late Tuesday after failing to garner support from Prime Minister Hun Sen, while an official at the company said it had begun destroying villagers’ ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/villagers-crops-destroyed-over-land-dispute-58183/
Families ask Hun Sen for help to reclaim farms
Dozens of representatives from at least 100 recently evicted families accused of illegally occupying state land in Kratie province traveled to Phnom Penh on Monday morning to petition Prime Minister Hun Sen for his help getting their land back. The families say local authorities have been ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/families-ask-hun-sen-for-help-to-reclaim-farms-58137/
Ibis Rice exports on horizon
The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) says its Ibis Rice project has recorded a production surplus for the first time in its five-year history, prompting a bid to export the boutique product overseas. Concentrated in Preah Vihear province, Ibis Rice farmers produced more than 435 tonnes of ...
Eddie Morton
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ibis-rice-exports-horizon
ANZ needs to step up its risk assessment: Oxfam
ANZ’s financing of ruling party senator Ly Yong Phat’s controversial sugar plantation has come under fire once again, this time in an investigation by NGO Oxfam into Australia’s big four banks and their links to rights abuses in developing countries. In a report titled “Banking on ...
Daniel de Carteret
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/anz-needs-step-its-risk-assessment-oxfam
Government urges land concession firms to respect law
Environment Minister Say Sam Al met with private firms with land concessions last week to gauge their compliance with government rules and regulations, and adherence to their own contracts. Amid mounting local and international pressure, Prime Minister Hun Sen in mid-2012 ordered a freeze on ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/government-urges-land-concession-firms-to-respect-law-57474/
Battambang Rice Investment gets international certification
Battambang Rice Investment Co Ltd says it has been certified as the first rice mill in Cambodia with Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) and Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP). In a statement, the company said it received confirmation of GMP and HACCP certification in a ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=13&token=YjA4ZDZhYTFmOTJ
Fishermen allege lot sold to businessman
One hundred fishermen in Banteay Meanchey province’s Sisophon town filed a complaint with local authorities yesterday, accusing a provincial fisheries administration official in Phniet commune of selling their subsistence fishing lot to a businessman. ...
Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/fishermen-allege-lot-sold-businessman
Rice customs fees dropped
The Ministry of Economy and Finance (MoEF) will scrap customs fees for rice exporters from May 1 in an effort to reduce production costs and boost Cambodia’s competitiveness in the sector, according to a letter obtained by the Post. “[The ministry] has agreed to eliminate charges ...
Hor Kimsay
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/rice-customs-fees-dropped
Cambodian mangoes ship off to China
Agriculture tycoon Mong Reththy yesterday confirmed a second shipment of Koe Romeat mangoes, twice the size of the first, will be headed for China this week from his Preah Sihanouk plantation. ...
Hor Kimsay
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/cambodian-mangoes-ship-china
Rice sector credit boost
The government-backed Rural Development Bank (RDB) will lend $64 million to Cambodia’s agriculture sector in 2014, the bank’s top official said yesterday. Sun Kunthor, president of RDB, said most of the funding would be used to support growth in Cambodia’s rice sector as it strives to ...
Chan Muyhong
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/rice-sector-credit-boost
Paddy rice farms curb losses from lost land
Cambodian paddy rice production fell only slightly during the first half of this year’s dry season, despite 12,000 hectares of usually productive land deemed unusable due to last year’s floods. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, dry season paddy rice production between December ...
Chan Muyhong
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/paddy-rice-farms-curb-losses-lost-land
Fish exports fail to impress
Cambodian fishery exports rose slightly during the first three months of the year, according to a report by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. The report, which was released yesterday, says that fish exports reached 4,800 tonnes in the first quarter, a year-on-year increase of ...
Chan Muyhong
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/fish-exports-fail-impress
Child labor probe on Preah Vihear sugar plantation moves forward
Police in Preah Vihear province say they have uncovered more evidence of child labor on a Chinese-owned sugarcane plantation and will send the case to court if further investigation confirms their preliminary findings. A former employee of the Lan Feng plantation filed a complaint last month ...
Khy Sovuthy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/child-labor-probe-on-preah-vihear-sugar-plantation-moves-forward-55643/
Python skin origins unclear
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) on Monday warned that allegedly farmed python skins originating from Cambodia could in fact have been harvested in the wild, and called for surveys to determine the scale and impact of possible python hunting in the ...
Stuart White
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/python-skin-origins-unclear
Rubber decline stokes worry
The government and industry insiders are worried about the steady decline of rubber prices over the last three years, during which the area it is cultivated in has grown. “Farmers and investors raised concern . . . over the trend of the market and the price of natural ...
Chan Muyhong
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/rubber-decline-stokes-worry
Hun Sen pushes rice export to Brunei
Prime Minister Hun Sen said that he would like to see the stronger economic and trade cooperation between Cambodia and Brunei. And Cambodia want to increase the rice export to Brunei. ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=11&token=OGVjODA2M2I1MDM