Agriculture and fishing
Agriculture
Optimism as Cashew Season Gets Under Way
As the cashew-harvesting season in Cambodia’s northeastern provinces begins, farmers are expecting a good crop due to favorable weather conditions last year, an official said yesterday. ...
Vietnamese Firm’s Land Concession Could be Canceled
The Ministry of Agriculture will ask Prime Minister Hun Sen to cancel a 4,900-hectare economic land concession belonging to a Vietnamese rubber company in Ratanakkiri province on the grounds that the firm has been illegally logging on a large scale, officials said yesterday. According to ...
Plantation manager aims to be top oud oil producer
Asia Forestry Management, an integrated plantation-management company with a focus on cultivating Aquilaria crassna, aims to become Thailand’s biggest producer of oud oil this year and Southeast Asia’s in five years. The company’s plant in Trat province will be expanded to produce 280 kilograms of ...
Senator's Wife Showers Police, Military With New Year Cash
At 9 a.m. yesterday, more than 200 soldiers, police and military police officers were gathered outside a large mansion on Street 55 in Phnom Penh’s Daun Penh district. All were waiting for their promised “ang pao” – red envelopes containing cash usually handed out during ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/senators-wife-showers-police-military-with-new-year-cash-9831/
Forest activists, firm facing off once again
The Prey Lang Community Network yesterday delivered a letter to authorities in Kampong Thom province’s Sandan district calling for the postponement of a Vietnamese concessionaire’s forest clearing and notifying authorities of their intention to deliver a lawsuit to the provincial hall tomorrow, network activists said. According ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013021261309/National/forest-activists-firm-facing-off-once-again.html
Lack of Redress For Farmers Contributes to H5N1 Spread
While the ministries of health and agriculture are taking measures to stem the spread of avian influenza – which claimed its fifth victim in just three weeks on Thursday – a lack of compensation for poultry owners affected by culling is limiting their effectiveness, officials ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/lack-of-redress-for-farmers-contributes-to-h5n1-spread-9854/
Greener Pastures
Market competition resulting from costly domestic rice remains a key factor driving Thai exporters to seek openings in neighbouring countries where the rice trade is more prosperous. Exporters say their performance was weak last year, mirroring the country’s overall decline in rice exports, which plunged ...
http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/economics/335303/greener-pastures
Belarus eyes enhanced trade, investment ties with Cambodia
Belarus announced its firm stance to promote bilateral cooperation with Cambodia in trade, investment and tourism for mutual benefits, Vladimir Andreichenko, Chairman of the Belarus Parliament, said Monday. He expressed Belarus’s desire to operate a direct flight to Cambodia. He suggested that the two countries ...
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2013-02/11/c_132164406.htm
Philippines seeks closer ties with Cambodia
Philippines Vice President Jejomar Binay says Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen supports the signing of agreements between Manila and Phnom Penh in rice trading and in fighting transnational crime. Cambodian officials have also expressed interest in launching direct flights between Manila and Phnom Penh. ...
Last days of a valley damned
Yong Yim’s voice rises to a high-pitched quiver when she talks about a planned dam in the Areng Valley that would inundate land her family has inhabited for hundreds of years to form what amounts to a giant battery. Now they are staring at ...
May Titthara, David Boyle and Danson Cheong
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013020861238/National/last-days-of-a-valley-damned.html
Longan farmers in Pailin plan factory
A co-operative of longan farmers in Pailin plans to build a processing factory to increase export capacity as output and demand rise. Meas Loeurn, the co-operative’s leader, told the Post on Wednesday rising demand from China was prompting growing numbers of farmers to cultivate the fruit. “During ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013020861252/Business/longan-farmers-in-pailin-plan-factory.html
Akra co-op signs first rice mill agreement
American business group Akra, led by Cambodian-born former US ambassador to the United Nations, Sichan Siv, has signed an agreement with a rice mill under a new co-operative structure it says puts ownership and profits back in to the hands of Cambodian producers. Akra’s managing director ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013020861251/Business/akra-co-op-signs-first-rice-mill-agreement.html
Cambodia's inflation rate fell to 3 per cent in 2012
Cambodia’s inflation rate fell to an annual three per cent last year, down from 4.9 per cent a year earlier, according to data from the National Bank of Cambodia released in late January. Chea Chanto, the bank’s governor, told an annual meeting in late January that ...
Cambodia's government takes back land
The government has slashed about 250,000 hectares of land from 79 economic land concessions (ELCs), forest concessions and wildlife protection concessions and will return it, replete with land titles, to “poor people”, January’s Royal Book says. The publication, issued on January 17 and obtained yesterday, says ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013020761237/National/cambodia-s-government-takes-back-land.html
Jarai File Complaint Over Firm Filling In Lake
Etnhic Jarai families living in Ratanakkiri province’s Kakeo district yesterday filed a complaint with the provincial court, accusing a Vietnamese rubber company of clearing their ancestral land and filling in a lake they use for fishing and irrigation. Local officials say the company intends to ...
Tractor imports decrease, but experts not concerned
Tractor imports fell by 24 per cent last year, a significant decrease from 44,993 units in 2011 to 36,301 units, according to recent statistics from the Ministry of Economy and Finance. Although the cultivation of some crops in the Kingdom has increased, analysts said yesterday ...
Local cashew nut exports increasing
Cambodia’s cashew-nut exports increased sharply from 443 tonnes in 2011 to 4,453 tonnes last year, according to the Ministry of Commerce. But observers say these figures do not reflect reality, as a large percentage of exports had not been recorded. An expert in cashew nut production, ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013020661205/Business/local-cashew-nut-exports-increasing.html
'Separatist' farms replaced by RCAF base
A track of land once farmed by 1,000 families in Kratie province — families violently evicted amid claims they were part of a separatist movement — is now home to a military base. Unit 9 Royal Cambodian Armed Forces base, which will be finished later this ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013020661212/National/separatist-farms-replaced-by-rcaf-base.html
Ambition Trumps Reality in Investment Figures
Since 2008, a whopping $28 billion worth of investments has been pledged by local and international firms looking to set up luxury hotels, a new airport and even Cambodia’s first horse racing venue. But a closer look at the list of investments approved by the Cambodian ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/ambition-trumps-reality-in-investment-figures-9387/
Cambodian rice millers to boost exports
Rice millers and exporters are optimistic that they will see an increase in exports this year after they received higher orders toward the end of 2012, producers said yesterday. Toch Tepech, president of the Svay Rieng Rice Millers Association, told the Post he had exported over ...
Companies to face court for illegal logging, land clearing
In what’s believed to be an unprecedented move, the Ratanakkiri Provincial Court has ordered two companies holding economic land concessions to face court questioning on accusations of illegal logging and land clearing. Deputy prosecutor Ros Saram said he summonsed Vietnamese-owned Company 72 last week and will ...
Cassava production dropped in 2012
The area of cassava under cultivation fell by 11.5 per cent across the country this season, while the price of cassava chips remained the same as last season’s price. Officials blamed an unstable price during the previous season (from April to April) for the drop. According ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013020561173/Business/cassava-production-dropped-in-2012.html
Villagers Claim Injustice in Land-titling Project
More than 200 villagers living on an economic land concession on Pursat province say they were unfairly left out of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s nationwide land-measuring program after local authorities on Saturday printed the names of families eligible for land titles. Chhuon Khurn, chief of Phteah ...
Hong Kong bans eggs from Cambodia
Hong Kong has banned egg imports from Cambodia due to the country’s recent avian influenza outbreak, which claimed four lives last month. “Hong Kong does not import live poultry or poultry meat from Cambodia, but 170,000 poultry eggs were imported from there last year,” the ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013020561181/National/hong-kong-bans-eggs-from-cambodia.html