Agriculture
Agricultural production
Half a million Cambodians affected by land grabs: rights group
More than half a million Cambodians have been affected by land conflicts involving the government since 2000, with more than 2,000 families across the country subjected to largely violent land grabs during the first few months of this year, local rights group Licadho said Tuesday. The ...
Joshua Lipes
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/land-04012014170055.html
Company 72 again accused of illegal logging
Ethnic Jarai villagers in Ratanakkiri province have once again accused the Vietnamese owners of a rubber plantation of illegally logging their ancestral forests in a complaint filed with rights group Adhoc. A district official, however, said the plantation owner, Company 72, was granted an extension on ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/company-72-again-accused-of-illegal-logging-55399/
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
Tough talk on ELCs
Economic land concessionaires not abiding by their contracts could have their licences revoked if they have seriously breached the terms, Prime Minister Hun Sen has said. Illegally seizing forest land would be punished under the Law on Forestry, he said on Friday, speaking at an annual ...
May Titthara and Daniel Pye
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/tough-talk-elcs
Firm ‘logging in sanctuary’
A company in Mondulkiri’s Sok San commune has been gradually cutting down a community forest, pushing more than 100 families off their land, villagers said yesterday. “That land belongs to us, the government granted it to us in 1999. But the company invaded and let us ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/firm-%E2%80%98logging-sanctuary%E2%80%99
AEC lures Thai rice millers to invest in Cambodia
Thai rice millers are lining up to build mills in Cambodia to cash in on imminent regional economic integration, with experts warning Cambodian rice is likely to flood Thailand. An industry source said several millers from Thailand’s central and northeastern regions are preparing to set up ...
Bangkok Post News Staff
http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/news/401535/aec-lures-thai-rice-millers-to-invest-in-cambodia
Sugar plantation under investigation for using child labor
Police and human rights workers are investigating claims that a Chinese-owned sugarcane plantation in Preah Vihear province has been employing child workers since December. Oeu Bunthany said the Y Heng Company fired her on Saturday after she complained to local police that up to 20 children ...
Khy Sovuthy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/sugar-plantation-under-investigation-for-using-child-labor-54866/
Logging firm fails again to notify and pay taxes
Logging by Vietnamese-owned concessionaire Company 72 has once again spilled the boundaries of its land in Ratanakkiri’s O’Yadav district, this time without paying proper taxes to the Forestry Administration (FA), local forest conservation activist Romas Svang said yesterday. ...
Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/logging-firm-fails-again-notify-and-pay-taxes
11,000 families refile old land dispute complaints nationwide
Rights group Adhoc on Wednesday helped 105 communities locked in long-running land disputes across the country refile their complaints with local courts and other state agencies in a concerted effort to push the government to finally resolve their cases. Covering a broad cross-section of the country’s ...
Cambodia Rice Exporters say hackers are compromising websites, account info
The Cambodian Rice Exporters would like to alert the rice community that some of the nation’s rice exporters’ websites and e-mail addresses have been attacked and compromised by hackers. ...
Oryza News Staff
http://oryza.com/news/rice-news/cambodia-rice-exporters-say-hackers-are-compromising-websites-account-info
Second death confirmed on Kompong Speu sugar plantation
A 44-year-old woman was run over and killed by a harvesting machine on Sunday while working on a sugarcane plantation in Kompong Speu province owned by CPP Senator Ly Yong Phat, marking at least the second death on the plantation since December. Y Mom, originally from ...
Kuch Naren and Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/second-death-confirmed-on-kompong-speu-sugar-plantation-54417/
Sugar exports to stay duty free, EU trade czar says
European Union Trade Commissioner Karel de Gucht said he has no plans to launch an investigation into Cambodia’s much-criticized sugarcane plantations after a meeting with Commerce Minister Sun Chanthol in Phnom Penh on Tuesday. Bottom line: Cambodia’s free trade benefits to Europe are safe for ...
Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/sugar-exports-to-stay-duty-free-eu-trade-czar-says-54447/
Kreung protest for release of charged arsonist
Dozens of ethnic minority Kreung villagers protested outside the Ratanakkiri Provincial Court on Monday, demanding the release of a fellow Kreung man presently in pretrial detention for setting fire to a pile of wood on land the community sold in 2007 but claims it was ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/kreung-protest-for-release-of-charged-arsonist-54429/
Sugar on EU visit’s agenda
European Union Trade Commissioner Karel de Gucht will visit Cambodia this week, the European Commission announced, with rights groups hoping that land grabbing related to sugar plantations will be high on the agenda. Following bilateral meetings in Brussels last week between Cambodia and the EU during ...
Kevin Ponniah and Vong Sokheng
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/sugar-eu-visit%E2%80%99s-agenda
Scepticism over social land grants
Nearly a million hectares of land has been granted to ordinary Cambodian citizens through social land concessions (SLC) since May 2012, the government has claimed, though civil society groups have cast doubt on that high figure and questioned how many landless or evicted poor have ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/scepticism-over-social-land-grants
Pursat land dispute leads to destruction
Villagers in Pursat province’s Veal Veng district, locked in an ongoing land dispute with local tycoon Try Pheap’s MDS Import Export Co Ltd, claimed yesterday that security forces and environmental officers opened fire and tried to burn down their houses and plantations on Tuesday after ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/pursat-land-dispute-leads-destruction
Government-formed land dispute committee suspected of bias
The Kompong Chhnang provincial government has set up a new committee to help settle a long-running land dispute between local farmers and a company owned by the wife of Mines and Energy Minister Suy Sem, but a representative of the villagers has not been invited ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/government-formed-land-dispute-committee-suspected-of-bias-53851/
A refined approach?
Hundreds of trucks hauling sugarcane queue up along the dusty roads that cut a path through a plantation in Kampong Speu province. Their destination: Cambodia’s most advanced sugar refinery. Its owners say the landmark project, run by the Phnom Penh Sugar Company and its president, ruling ...
Daniel de Carteret
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/refined-approach
Locals seeking justice after ‘broken deal’
Villagers in Ratanakkiri’s O’Chum district are demanding their land back, claiming buyers from a local company failed to uphold a 2007 deal. The 66 ethnic Kreung families filed a complaint on Friday after workers from a nearby rubber plantation started to slash and burn the 400 ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/locals-seeking-justice-after-%E2%80%98broken-deal%E2%80%99
Cambodia Rice Federation (CRF) Launched to Help Nation Reach Annual Rice Export Target of One Million Tons by 2015
Cambodia officially announced the creation of the Cambodia Rice Federation (CRF) to improve competitiveness, promote trade, and increase investment in the rice sector, according to comments from the Prime Minister. Board elections are expected to take place Mrch 24 and the chairman is limited to ...
Oryza News Staff
http://oryza.com/news/rice-news/cambodia-rice-federation-crf-launched-help-nation-reach-annual-rice-export-target-one
NGOs say selling off old land concessions is premature
The government’s announcement on Wednesday that companies looking to start rubber plantations could skirt a moratorium on new economic land concessions (ELCs) by taking over existing, dormant ones continued to make a good impression on prospective investors in town Thursday. Ly Phalla, who heads the Agriculture ...
Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/archives/ngos-say-selling-off-old-land-concessions-is-premature-53677/
New owners, old story
An existing moratorium on economic land concessions should be no impediment to pouring more cash into the Kingdom’s booming, and highly criticised, rubber trade, industry executives in the capital heard yesterday, as many current ELCs can simply be recycled to a new crop of investors. Ly ...
Daniel Pye
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/new-owners-old-story
Meeting on bitter sugar issues
An ad hoc committee comprised of representatives from the European Union, the Ministry of Commerce, provincial administrations and the sugar industry met again yesterday at the ministry’s headquarters to continue its discussion of issues faced by those displaced by sugar plantations. The committee touched upon topics ...
Stuart White
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/meeting-bitter-sugar-issues
Palm oil plantation accused of withholding workers’ pay
More than 20 families working on a controversial palm oil plantation in Ratanakkiri province owned by the Hoang Anh Lumphat company have filed a complaint with rights group Adhoc accusing the owners of improperly withholding one month’s pay. Lor Sophal said he and another 22 families, ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/palm-oil-plantation-accused-of-withholding-workers-pay-53520/