Agriculture and fishing
UN agency to give $36 million for rural market access
The UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) will provide $36 million to the Commerce Ministry to help improve market access for poor farmers and small entrepreneurs. ...
May Kunmakara
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/24087/un-agency-to-give--36-million-for-rural-market-access/
Hot weather shakes up local salt sector
Unusually high yields of salt production in Kep and Kampot province have surpassed the market’s low demand, filling the nation’s salt storage facilities to capacity, the head of a local industry body said yesterday. ...
Sor Chandara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/hot-weather-shakes-local-salt-sector
Kingdom’s first abattoir primed for Australian cattle
After a series of technical delays and setbacks, the Kingdom’s first industrial slaughterhouse is ready to begin operations and will start production upon receiving its first shipment of 2,000 heads of live Australian cattle in late May, the company behind the project said yesterday. ...
Kali Kotoski and Sor Chandara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/kingdoms-first-abattoir-primed-australian-cattle
Cambodia to bid for Philippines rice contract, for show
Cambodia does not expect to win the contract to supply half million tons of rice to the Philippines during the bidding process that will take place in the upcoming months, citing high production costs as the major constraint in competing with neighboring Vietnam and Thailand, ...
May Kunmakara
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/23965/cambodia-to-bid-for-philippines-rice-contract--for-show/
Chinese-invested giant sugar mill starts operations in Cambodia
Chinese agro firm Rui Feng (Cambodia) International Company began operations at its 360-million-U.S.-dollar sugar production factory here on Tuesday after spending nearly two years for construction. ...
Xinhua Team
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2016-04/19/c_135293103.htm
Singapore’s HLH Group plans $10 million farm food processing park
Singapore-listed HLH Group Ltd will invest $10 million in an agricultural food processing park, which is due to be fully operational next year, the Singapore Business Review reported yesterday. The 400-hectare park will be in Kampong Speu province’s Oral district, said Kim Koung, an official of ...
Protests planned for Preah Vihear sugar plant’s opening
Preah Vihear’s deputy governor has vowed not to let protesters near Prime Minister Hun Sen as he cuts the ribbon on a $360 million sugar mill in Tbeng Meanchey district today. ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/protests-planned-preah-vihear-sugar-plants-opening
Cambodia aims to stop imports of livestock feed
Cambodia plans to stop importing feed from neighboring countries to supply the livestock and poultry industry, but not immediately, as the government works to upgrade the animal husbandry skills of farmers and increase local production. ...
Chea Vannak
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/23915/cambodia-aims-to-stop-imports-of-livestock-feed/
ElCs earn just $5M for gov’t
The bulk of Cambodia’s economic land concessions (ELCs) – at the centre of numerous land disputes and human rights concerns over the past two decades – generated just $5 million for state coffers last year, with critics attributing the meagre returns to a lack of ...
Ananth Baliga and Vong Sokheng
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/elcs-earn-just-5m-govt
Cassava in south-east Asia under threat from witches' broom disease
Climate change and globalisation are fuelling an explosion in the pests and diseases that afflict south-east Asia’s cassava crops, threatening a multi-billion dollar industry and the staple food of millions of people, a report warns. ...
World Bank: East Asian growth expected to ease to 6.3% this year
Economic growth in developing East Asian countries is expected to ease in the next two years as the slowdown in China and sluggish pricing for commodities linger, according to new forecast released Sunday by the World Bank. ...
Gov’t waives VAT to support rice millers
Agricultural products have been granted an exemption from the value-added tax (VAT) as part of a government effort to support local rice farmers and millers, according to a prakas issued Wednesday by the General Taxation Department. ...
Post Staff
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/govt-waives-vat-support-rice-millers
Endangered irrawaddy dolphin found dead in Kratie
A dead Irrawaddy dolphin was found on the banks of the Mekong early yesterday morning in Kratie province’s Chet Borey district, according to police. District police chief Noun Yin said officers were unable to determine the cause of the dolphin’s death because there were no physical ...
Srey Kumneth
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/23635/endangered-irrawaddy-dolphin-found-dead-in-kratie/
Helping farmers keep their cool
One of a farmer’s greatest enemies is heat. As many as 50 percent of the fruit and vegetables harvested in Cambodia are lost because of heat – lettuce wilts, onions become slimy, tomatoes turn to mush. Because of a lack of cold storage at most of ...
Jonathan Cox
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/23636/helping-farmers-keep-their-cool/
Rice exports up, but cash shortage hitting
Rice exports for the first quarter of the year jumped 8.5 percent to 162,220 tons from 149,464 tons for the same period last year, but in March the figure dropped 14.5 percent, or 9,592 tons, to 66,275 tons in the face of competition from Thailand, ...
Sok Chan
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/23629/rice-exports-up--but-cash-shortage-hitting/
Plenty of fish, but no buyers
At what should be a boom time ahead of the New Year, seafood vendors in Kampot have full baskets but no buyers as the algae bloom around Kep turns the water bright green and dead fish wash ashore. The government has issued a warning against swimming ...
Chea Vannak
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/23571/plenty-of-fish--but-no-buyers/
China dams blamed for exacerbating SE Asia water shortage
As China opened one of its six dams on the upper Mekong River last month to help parched Southeast Asian countries down river cope with a record drought, it was hailed as benevolent water diplomacy. But to critics of hydroelectric dams built on the Mekong over ...
Tran Van Minh and Stephen Wright
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/china/national-news/2016/04/04/462555/China-dams.htm
Palm sugar finds a sweet market niche
Demand for Kampong Speu palm sugar has surged, with orders already up 70 per cent this year, as appetite for the premium organic sugar product grows, boosting its price. ...
Cheng Sokhorng
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/palm-sugar-finds-sweet-market-niche
Mangoes exported to Europe in a first for kingdom
Mong Reththy, known as the king of agriculture in Cambodia for his role running the large Mong Reththy Group, aims to expand the Kingdom’s mango market to Europe. ...
Sum Manet
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/23468/mangoes-exported-to-europe-in-a-first-for-kingdom/
Centre in China to aid Mekong management
The governments of China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam have agreed to set up a centre in China where the six countries can work together to find solutions to water resource management problems, the Mekong River Commission said in a statement released yesterday. ...
Igor Kossov
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/centre-china-aid-mekong-management
UN promises to improve Cambodian agricultural production
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) will continue its support for the Kingdom’s food security and agricultural sector, while also helping with market research to assist the export of Cambodian milled rice and geographically-protected pepper products, Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Chum Sounry said ...
Ros Chanveasna
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/23418//
USAID grant to help agriculture sector
Cambodia’s agriculture sector will benefit from a grant of $35 million by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), with some of the money also going towards public health and education. ...
Chea Vannak
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/23403/usaid-grant-to-help-agriculture-sector/
Preah Vihear villagers allege rubber company retaliation
Villagers from Preah Vihear’s Kulen district, where last week two rubber company guard posts were torched, yesterday alleged security guards from the same company had looted their homes and threatened to burn them. ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/preah-vihear-villagers-allege-rubber-company-retaliation
Changes rolled out to prop up rice sector
The government took steps to shore up the rice sector yesterday, saying it would remove the current value added tax [VAT] on milling machines in the country and shut down companies importing rice from neighboring countries and rebranding it as Cambodian during an emergency meeting ...
Sok chan
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/23419/changes-rolled-out-to-prop-up-rice-sector/