Agriculture
Agricultural production
Vendors hit as price of Thai durian imports rise
The price of durian from Thailand has risen sharply this year, leading to shrinking profits for fruit vendors in Phnom Penh as demand from China for the spiky, pungent fruit grows more robust. On Sihanouk Boulevard, fruit vendor Heng Sovanna said that since March, the price ...
Kang Sothear and George Styllis
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/vendors-hit-as-price-of-thai-durian-imports-rise-59964/
Thai mangosteen, durian supplies short of demand in Cambodia, Vietnam
Cambodia and Vietnam have urged Thailand to export more mangosteen and durian in response to the high demand in both neighbouring countries. Sombat Juengtrakoon, deputy chairman of the Thai-Cambodian Border Trade and Tourism Association in Chanthaburi Province, told journalists Monday that Thailand export a lower volume ...
Pattaya Mail
http://www.pattayamail.com/business/thai-mangosteen-durian-supplies-short-of-demand-in-cambodia-vietnam-37980
NGOs lobby China, companies over Sesan dam
A group of 15 local and international rights groups Tuesday sent a slew of letters to the Chinese government and companies involved in the Lower Sesan II hydropower dam in Stung Treng province seeking a halt to dam construction due to serious environmental and social ...
Simon Henderson
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ngos-lobby-china-companies-over-sesan-dam-59807/
Villager in land row denied character statement by police
A villager involved in a long-running land dispute in Kompong Chhnang province with the wife of Mines and Energy Minister Suy Sem has accused his commune police chief of discrimination after he was refused a character statement he needed to apply for a garment factory ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/villager-in-land-row-denied-character-statement-by-police-59726/
Cassava fuel plant study now one year in
Japanese petroleum company Idemitsu Oil & Gas is considering building a biomass plant in Battambang province to use cassava to produce fuel, a Cambodia Mine Action Centre (CMAC) official says. Leng Chreang, director of mine risk education at CMAC, said the Japanese firm is one year ...
Chan Muyhong
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/cassava-fuel-plant-study-now-one-year
Villager travels to Parliament over land row
A representative of villagers involved in a land dispute in Mondolkiri province appealed to the government Tuesday to address their displacement after their shelters were destroyed by police and soldiers in a forced eviction Monday. Chan Rithy stood outside the National Assembly in Phnom Penh on ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/villager-travels-to-parliament-over-land-dispute-59795/
HAGL called out at the UN
A Cambodian delegation to the United Nations last week used the stage to shame the World Bank’s financial arm for failing to adequately monitor investments in a Vietnamese rubber giant accused of illegal logging, forced evictions and sexual harassment. Representing 17 indigenous communities in Ratanakkiri that ...
Laignee Barron
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/hagl-called-out-un
Suspected land scam artists sent to court
Eight huts were torn down and about 50 families were ordered to vacate land yesterday in Mondulkiri province’s Koh Nhek district as the couple whom police said illegally sold them the plots was arrested and sent to court. ...
Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/suspected-land-scam-artists-sent-court
Cambodia to rear prawns in ‘third water’
Cambodian farmers will open three prawn farms this summer in the mountain region using Japanese technique of ‘third water’ for creating artificial river and seawater The artificial water is a blend of fresh water and a carefully measured mix of minerals, including salts of sodium, potassium ...
Far Eastern Agriculture News Staff
http://www.fareasternagriculture.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3463:cambodia-to-rear-prawns-in-third-water&catid=1080&Itemid=97
Villagers in R’kiri dispute block road
Villagers in Ratanakkiri province blocked National Road 78A on Thursday for more than three hours as authorities tried to push through to evict them in favor of a rubber company, police and villagers said. About 400 villagers blocked the section of the road that links O’Chum ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/villagers-in-rkiri-dispute-block-road-59442/
Directive aims to stop ELC abuses
Sacred burial grounds and community forests should be granted more protection under a new government proclamation issued this month, but rights groups and land-grab victims are wary that, without proper enforcement, it will amount to little in practice. An interministerial proclamation, or prakas, signed by ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/directive-aims-stop-elc-abuses
Ratanakkiri homes razed as authorities move in
More than 400 people clashed with police and military police in Ratanakkiri province on Wednesday as authorities attempted to bulldoze their houses to make way for a rubber company plantation, villagers said. Authorities managed to bulldoze the houses of about 200 families, who they said had ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ratanakkiri-homes-razed-as-authorities-move-in-59341/
New chairman of the Cambodia Rice Federation viewed with suspicion by local media; agenda will focus on raising rice quality, lower borrowing rates
The newly-formed Cambodia Rice Federation (CRF), a body that aims to unite the rice sector under one representative body in the country, just elected its first chairman and he happens to be the son of Cambodia’s deputy prime minister. He is also the CEO of ...
Oryza News Staff
http://oryza.com/news/rice-news/new-chairman-cambodia-rice-federation-viewed-suspicion-local-media-agenda-will-focus
Land fight in Kampong Speu
Some 250 families in Kampong Speu province’s Phnom Sruoch district have sought intervention from rights group Adhoc to help resolve a land dispute involving a business they allege is headed by the son of former provincial governor Kang Heang. Families from three villages say Heang, who ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/land-fight-kampong-speu
Exports expand: HK the new market for organic rice
In a first for the Kingdom’s organic rice, the Cambodian Center for Study and Development in Agriculture (CEDAC), successfully exported its produce to Hong Kong earlier this month, the organisation’s top official confirmed yesterday. ...
Hor Kimsay
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/exports-expand-hk-new-market-organic-rice
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/
Longans longing for storage
The amount of land used to grow longans has doubled in the past two years, but a lack of supply-chain infrastructure is hampering farmers’ ability to get top dollar for their product, the fruit’s body says. Sreng Sreang, deputy director of the Pailin Longan Farmers’ Community ...
Chan Muyhong
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/longans-longing-storage
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
CPP-friendly businessman launches newspaper
T Mohan, a Malaysian publisher and businessman arrested in the 1990s for attempting to extort a casino executive, is back in Cambodia’s newspaper market. The Khmer Times, the latest English-language news offering from Mr. Mohan, hit newsstands earlier this month, with a government spokesman even resigning ...
Alex Willemyns
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/cpp-friendly-businessman-launches-newspaper-58610/
Government says 3.4 million land titles issued
The government has issued a total of 3.4 million land titles across the country, 500,000 of them since a renewed push personally orchestrated by Prime Minister Hun Sen, according to new figures released by the Land Management Ministry. In a notice posted to its website Friday, ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/government-says-3-4-million-land-titles-issued-58477/
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