Agriculture

Investment in the Cambodian construction sector reached US$1.38 billion in the first seven months of 2012, an 85-percent rise over the same period last year, according to figures from the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction. During the January to July period this year, the ministry ...

Cambodian officials have begun to raise awareness on the forthcoming government issued standards for Cambodian milled brown rice, in an effort to guage reactions ahead of the official approval by the National Standards Board, according to officials. The official approval, aimed at promoting brown rice in ...

Economic land concessions strewn over the remote Western Siem Pang forest, in Stung Treng province, are threatening the survival of Cambodia’s national bird, the giant ibis, a report reveals. The forest, flanking the Kingdom’s border with Laos,  is home to five critically endangered bird species, yet ...

The World Health Organization (WHO) yesterday urged Cambodia to increase taxes on cigarettes and other tobacco products-currently the lowest in the world-in order to raise revenue and deter smokers. Ayda Yurekli, coordinator of the WHO’s tobacco control economics unit, said during a workshop in Phnom Penh ...

Increasing the tobacco retail tax — one of the world’s lowest at 10 per cent of unit price for domestically produced cigarettes — would deter smokers and increase government revenue while having minimal effect on tobacco producers, Ayda Yurekli, co-ordinator for the World Health Organization’s ...

Residents of Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak neighborhood burned straw effigies symbolizing corrupt government officials yesterday to mark the one-year anniversary of the demolition of eight homes at the contested site. Roughly 100 protesters gathered at the site of the demolitions and set fire to eight scarecrow-like effigies- one ...

Once a majority ethnic minority province where Tampoun, Jarai and Kreung speakers outnumbered the Khmer, Ratanakkiri is now one of the country’s fastest growing provinces where inhabitants of lowland provinces, particularly Kompong Cham, Svay Rieng and Prey Veng, are flocking in search of a better ...

Ethnic Bunong villagers in Mondolkiri province’s Pech Chreada district are bitterly divided over how best to protect their ancestral land amid efforts by authorities to map it in preparation for property titles. Bosra commune chief Yoeth Sarin said that since student volunteers-deployed across the country as ...

International human rights groups added their voices to the chorus of criticism over the detention of two female anti-eviction activists from the Boeng Kak and Borei Keila communities, accusing the court of failing to honor fair trial standards. In a statement issued late Thursday, Amnesty International, ...

TOP Glove Corp Bhd became the first rubber glove maker to move upstream by acquiring its own rubber plantation land to ensure a consistent supply of latex At for the purchase price of RM22mil, it translates to RM715 per ha, which is also 35% cheaper than ...

Amid flooding caused by heavy rain in Thailand, Banteay Meanchey provincial officials have commissioned the construction of a steel bridge over an inundated section of road on the outskirts of Poipet City, officials said yesterday. Flooding in Preah Vihear province, which started last week following heavy ...

Cambodians like pork. The average Cambodian consumes almost 9.29 kg of the meat each year, and local farmers supplied about 2 million pigs, more than 90 percent of the domestic demand, in 2008. But the market for small-scale pig farmers has flown. Live pig prices have fallen ...

More than 200 motorcycle-taxi drivers gathered in Phnom Penh’s Freedom Park yesterday, for the third time, to protest against human rights groups who have characterized the recent arrest of two anti-eviction activists as politically motivated. The little known taxi drivers’ union, Cambodia for Confederation Development Association ...

Speculators have been selling rice to Thailand via Cambodia for over a month despite domestic prices rising VND1,000/kg. At the meeting of Vietnam Food Association (VFA) on September 7 in HCM City, Director of An Giang Export Company Nguyen Van Tien said the amount of rice ...

In parts of rural Cambodia, farmers’ primary source of income comes from harvesting rice — once a year. This is a poor outcome compared to other ASEAN countries which harvest twice or thrice a year. To help increase farmers’ income, Victor Combal-Weiss and Guillaume Virag founded ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court questioned a district governor from Kampong Thom province yesterday over his involvement  in clearing protected flooed forest in the province in July. Prim Rottha, Stong district governor, is one of about 20 officials who received court summonses in July over their suspected ...

Eating rat is a common phenomenon over the border in Vietnam, but increasing numbers of Cambodians in nearby villages are adopting rodent cuisine with relish. As many as three tonnes of rats are caught every day in Cambodia and exported to Vietnam to feed a ...

Human rights monitoring groups and Cambodian activists are calling for an international boycott of Tate & Lyle and Domino Sugar, who do business with sugar suppliers accused of participating in government-sanctioned land grabs and illegal evictions throughout rural Cambodia. According to the Cambodian League for the ...

High-profile Phnom Penh businesswoman Chhin Sokountheary has called on Prime Minister Hun Sen to return 33 hectares of prime land in Phnom Penh’s Sen Sok district to her company, which lost the rights to it when the government claimed the land in July. Sokountheary said she ...

Cambodia’s total trade volume grew 15.41 percent to reach$7.46 billion in the first seven months compared to the same period last year, according to data released yesterday by the Ministry of Commerce. Revenues earned through exports reached $2.9 billion, an increase of 11.82 percent compared to ...

Global food prices remained high in August according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) food price index, maintaining the high level achieved last month as corn prices jumped in the US and rice prices increased in Cambodia. With 213 points in August the food ...

Japanese Ambassador Kuroki Masafumi met with human rights workers on Friday to discuss land rights in Cambodia, particularly implementation of the law and the use of force in evictions, two of the participants at the meeting said. Adhoc President Thun Saray, Licadho President Pung Chhiv Kek and ...

Imprisoned Yorm Bopha has either been unjustly targeted for her role in Boeung Kak lake eviction protests or is responsible for the vicious beating of two motodops, depending on which protesters’ chants were true yesterday. It was land evictees versus motodops in the capital as two ...

Sri Lanka’s Touchwood Investments PLC has acquired 11,138 hectares of land in Cambodia to set up an agricultural project to plant rubber and other crops. Chairman of the firm, Roscoe A. Maloney, says the acquisition done in the previous financial year is aimed at exploring the ...