Agriculture

For generations, the indigenous Bunong were famous as the great elephant keepers and masters of the forests in eastern Cambodia. They called the fertile, rolling hills of their ancestral homeland “meh ne,” or mother – a source of food, livelihoods and self-identity. ...

Kampong Speu palm sugar production is predicted to slightly decrease this year due to a late start, climate change, water shortages and working capital for farmers, but prices are expected to rise due to the sugar’s growing popularity since its geographical indication certification. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen has asked China to import more agricultural products from Cambodia to boost bilateral trade and strengthen the relationship between the two countries. The prime minister wants to boost bilateral trade to $5 billion by 2017. ...

The Ministry of Agriculture has rejected a request from private-sector rubber firms – led by agricultural tycoon Mong Reththy – for a meeting to discuss the floundering fortunes of the nation’s rubber sector, claiming the ministry was busy and was already addressing the issue. ...

Up to 4,000 mostly ethnic minority people in Mondulkiri’s Keo Seima district are facing a water shortage after the local supplier announced service would be suspended due to impending widescale drought. ...

Drought in Southeast Asia is raising concerns in the Cambodian and Vietnamese countryside where salinity levels are rising in the Mekong River and people are skeptical about fresh promises from Laos that it will respect the rights of downstream countries in dam construction. ...

Thirteen provinces across the country have finished harvesting their dry season rice and yields have increased on last year’s crop, but local millers and exporters are concerned about the bulk of the crop making its way to a neighboring country.   ...

Yon Kob’s cassava fields in Sala Krao district have usually been harvested by now, but this year the thicket of thin, knobby cassava plants is still standing. Mr. Kob has delayed his harvest in the hope that the price of the tuber would rise, but ...

One of Thailand’s leading agricultural groups and a major producer of animal feed will build a $30 million factory in the Phnom Penh Special Economic Zone, company officials announced last week. ...

As Phnom Penh sees a sprouting of organic grocery stores across the city, the newest entrant in the market says it will go a step further and sell chemical-free pesticides to farmers to encourage the growing trend of organic products and farming techniques. ...

The Commerce Ministry has created a special taskforce to study challenges threatening the sustainability of the nation’s rice industry and will report its findings within two weeks, a ministry official said yesterday. ...

The Cambodia Rice Federation (CRF) on Thursday met with the Ministry of Commerce to discuss policies for strengthening the country’s ailing rice industry, and unveiled a plan to develop a price-support mechanism to guarantee Cambodia’s rice export price, officials said. ...

Cambodia’s exports of crude palm oil have increased, though the price has declined in line with falling global prices, according to an official and a producer. ...

Cambodia’s rubber industry’s woes have begun to crystallise after two major rubber plantations announced deep losses yesterday, attributing their downturn to high production costs and a drop in global rubber prices. ...

The Kingdom exported 9,379.29 tons of sesame last year, according to a report from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, with Vietnam buying the lion’s share. ...

Palm sugar from Kampong Speu, which has been registered for geographical indication (GI) status, is in the processing stage of being granted protected geographical indication (PGI) status in Thailand and Vietnam. This comes after Kampot pepper was recently certified as PGI in the European Union ...

New figures show that Cambodia’s sugar exports to the European Union fell by 94.8 per cent between 2013 and 2015, amid accusations of rights abuses and land grabbing in the Kingdom’s industry. ...

Cambodian women play an important role in the agricultural sector, especially as the nation’s economic conditions continue to force many men to seek work overseas, according to experts. ...

A week after an alliance of millers and exporters criticized the Cambodia Rice Federation (CRF) for its inaction in the face of the sector’s possible collapse, the federation Wednesday announced the formation of a new task force to manage challenges facing its members. ...

Responding to criticism, Cambodia’s apex rice industry body announced yesterday that it would submit a plan to Prime Minister Hun Sen that addresses two of the major challenges facing the Kingdom’s rice sector – competition from rice imports and access to finance for millers. ...

The president of the Cambodia Rice Federation (CRF) has asked the government for an emergency loan of $20 million to $30 million, saying it is necessary to prevent the collapse of the rice sector. ...

Vegetables, fruit and other food products imported from neighboring countries are undermining domestic agricultural production and steps need to be taken to assist the industry here, a forum was told yesterday. ...

Local rice millers and exporters have responded with alarm to the rice-export target set by the Lao government of 1 million tons this year, while Cambodian rice millers and traders have yet to overcome numerous barriers hindering their competitiveness at home and abroad. ...

Local agro-industrial conglomerate Mong Reththy Group is negotiating a new partnership that would send large-volume shipments of Cambodian cassava products to Europe for the first time. ...