Agriculture

Seven ethnic Bunong villagers in a land dispute with a Vietnamese-owned rubber plantation in Mondolkiri province have been summoned by the provincial court for questioning after the company accused them of illegally occupying its land in Keo Seima district. ...

In a bid to stock 1.2 million tonnes of rice paddy, Cambodia has sent a draft memorandum of understanding to China asking the country for a $300 million loan to build more than 10 warehouses nationwide. The draft MoU was prepared by the Ministry of Economy ...

Three months after it began buying up rice stock, the Cambodia Rice Bank (CRB) has acquired about 20,000 tonnes of paddy and 7,000 tonnes of milled rice, a representative from the bank said on Friday. According to Phou Puy, chairman and CEO of the CRB, the ...

Minority Kuoy and Phnong community members from Preah Vihear and Mondulkiri provinces are demanding that the government cancel economic land concessions granted to two Chinese companies and a Vietnamese firm for allegedly violating land laws. In a press conference yesterday in Phnom Penh, representatives from the ...

More than four months after first taking their complaint over a land dispute to the National Assembly’s human rights commission, 50 villagers from Kompong Chhnang province on Thursday protested in front of the assembly, calling for the commission’s head to resign for failing to resolve ...

Three villagers suffered minor injuries yesterday after they clashed with security guards for a Chinese-owned company with which they are ensnared in a long-running land dispute. ...

Cambodian Environment Minister Say Samal said Tuesday that the government had cancelled licenses of economic land concessions (ELCs) for 23 companies last year after the firms have failed to develop the land for years. ...

Cambodia has exported about 387,100 tons of rice in 2014, up about 2% from around 378,856 tons exported in 2013, according to local sources. About 62% of rice exports were destined to Europe, according to sources at the Ministry of Agriculture. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday admitted that the government target of reaching 1 million tonnes of rice exports by 2015 is likely to fail due to a lack of milling capacity and funding. The PM blamed the failure on a lack of investment in rice ...

More than 200 villagers from Kampong Speu protested in front of ANZ Royal Bank’s headquarters in Phnom Penh yesterday, demanding the bank pay them compensation. ...

Cambodia’s minister of commerce has announced that the country will step up efforts to export rice to Africa, Middle East and the European Union. In his three-day visit to Kuwait in December 2014, Chanthol aimed at opening new avenues for Cambodian-made agricultural goods to enter ...

A campaign for No Pesticide Day was held in eastern Cambodia’s Kratie province on Thursday with an appeal for relevant agencies to take part in the abolishment of the use of extremely dangerous pesticides. ...

The European Union has agreed to investigate forced displacement claims in relation to Cambodia’s troubled sugar industry. The move could see thousands of villagers compensated for illegally confiscated land and loss of earnings. The Clean Sugar Campaign – which has been calling on the EU to ...

Kampong Speu palm sugar exports with geographical indication (GI) status have increased in the past year, as international buyers begin to appreciate the Cambodia-specific product. Export volumes of the sugar reached 50 tonnes in 2014, according to Kampong Speu Palm Sugar Promotion Association’s (KSPSPA) president, Sam ...

Cambodia exported 335,925 tonnes of rice in the first 11 months of the year, up from 332,009 tonnes in the same period last year. ...

A lack of irrigation, rising costs of production and finding new markets to sell their produce are problems that plague Cambodian farmers, attendees at the annual National Farmers Forum were told yesterday. Organised by the Council for Agricultural and Rural Development at the Council of Ministers ...

The government has seized more than 50,000 hectares of economic land concessions from a number of powerful companies across the Kingdom, putting the areas under the control of the Ministry of Environment, according to sub-decrees signed last week. One decree signed by Prime Minister Hun Sen ...

Some 200 agricultural development experts and government ministers from across Asia and the Pacific gathered here on Tuesday to discuss plans to transform rural areas in the region. The 2-day workshop on transforming rural areas in Asia and the Pacific was jointly organized by the Cambodian ...

Cambodia exported 335,925 tons of rice in the first 11 months of 2014, up from 332,009 tons shipped in the same period last year, according to a report of Secretariat of One Window Service for Rice Export Formality on Tuesday. ...

An illicit cross-border rubber trade is thriving in Cambodia amid plummeting global prices and is threatening legitimate processing operations in the country, according to business owners and industry experts. And while Cambodia’s natural rubber export tariffs are set at between 2 and 10 percent, Vietnam ...

Three parliamentarians from the National Assembly’s human rights commission, led by CNRP lawmaker Eng Chhay Eang, returned Tuesday from a two-day visit to four communities in Koh Kong province locked in land disputes with companies holding private land concessions. Following the trip, the lawmakers said ...

Mong Reththy, one of Cambodia’s most prominent tycoons, complained Tuesday that recent recipients of expansive land concessions from the government have less of a social conscience than entrepreneurs granted land in the 1990s. Speaking on the sidelines of a conference hosted by USAID and the NGO ...

Chinese officials have called on Cambodia to increase fruit exports amid an expected rise in domestic demand for fresh produce fuelled by online sales. Feng Bo, deputy major of Ping Xiang city of Guangxi province, last week said fruit imports from ASEAN nations must increase from ...

Officials from Southeast Asia’s natural rubber-producing nations met in Kuala Lumpur yesterday for the 12th International Tripartite Rubber Council (ITRC). Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam (CLMV) joined ITRC core nations – Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia – for the event, which is being touted as a joint ...