Agriculture and fishing

The volume of fish caught to make prahok (fermented fish paste) in the first season on the Tonle Sap Lake and River rose because weather conditions were ideal, but the amount expected for the second season, which begins in February, is likely to be lower ...

The Ministry of Commerce announced last week a $400 million proposal by three Chinese firms to build state-run rice warehousing facilities to increase the Kingdom’s storage capacity. ...

Cambodian rice millers and exporters are increasingly eyeing the export of organic rice to the European Union and the United States, after shipments of this niche product increased this year. ...

Rice production declined slightly in 2015 due to drought in some areas, according to estimates from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries, but officials say this will not affect domestic supply or exports. ...

With the onset of the fishing season for the Cambodian fermented fish condiment prahok, an Agriculture Ministry official said yesterday that fish yields this year have increased compared to 2014, but traders say most of the catch so far is too small to use for ...

In the Kampong Phluk fishing village on the Tonle Sap lake, home to thousands of families in Siem Reap province, fishermen say their catch this year has been too poor to live on. Ning Ny, chief of Kampong Phluk commune, in Siem Reap, said almost ...

Exports of crude palm oil from the Mong Reththy Company – the Kingdom’s sole producer of the product – increased 8.1 per cent for the first 11 months this year, compared to the same period in 2014. ...

Authorities in Siem Reap province are searching for dozens of ethnic Vietnamese fishermen accused of attacking a group of their Khmer counterparts with steel poles while they were working on the Tonle Sap river on Monday night. ...

Police in Kandal province on Tuesday arrested the owner of an electrified rat trap that killed a fisherman in a flooded rice field behind the suspect’s home on Mon­day night, an official said. ...

China has set a yearend deadline for Cambodia to submit a list of all Cambodian rice exporters so that Chinese inspectors can evaluate whether they can fully meet food safety laws in a market Cambodian exporters are hoping to increase exports to, according to an ...

Born in 1953, Hay Ly Eang is the same age as independent Cambodia. But unlike his home country, which was torn apart by war and political conflicts in the decades that followed independence, Mr. Ly Eang managed to avoid much of the turmoil after leaving the ...

The season for making prahok, the fermented fish paste that is a staple of the Cambodian diet, has opened this month amid mixed forecasts for the annual catch.Prahok production, which fuels the Kingdom’s largest annual fish harvest, sustains the incomes of thousands of Cambodians, particular ...

Salt producers in Kep and Kampot say their revenues have plummeted over the last two years as cheaper and better-quality salt from Thailand floods the local market.Bun Baraing, co-director of the Kep-Kampot Salt Producers Community, said local consumers have switched to imported Thai salt, which ...

New government estimates on this year’s rice production and forecasts for next year’s crop may be overly optimistic, industry experts say, factoring in the impact of a drought that damaged crops and is expected to carry over into the next dry season harvest.The Ministry of ...

The Ministry of Agriculture signed a memorandum of understanding with South Korea yesterday to export Cambodian mangoes and expand its short list of export destinations, a ministry official said. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday called on banks and microfinance institutions (MFIs) to suspend loan repayments by borrowers affected by this year’s drought, or either make the loans interest free or cut the rates. ...

Cambodia’s total rice production this year will exceed 9.2 million tonnes, according preliminary estimates of rice harvested in 24 provinces and compiled by the Ministry of Agriculture. ...

The Fisheries Administration (FA) plans to strengthen its presence in Kep province with the opening of a new cantonment there, officials announced in an official ceremony yesterday morning.The move comes after what conservationists say has been a steady increase in illegal trawling in Kep Bay, ...

Local rubber producers yesterday expressed little enthusiasm to attend this year’s Global Rubber Conference, which opens today in Ho Chi Minh City, voicing pessimism about the gloomy market for natural rubber and scepticism on whether the conference would yield any solutions to producers’ pricing problems.Among ...

Grow Asia, a multi-stakeholder partnership focused on sustainable and inclusive agriculture in the ASEAN region, is seeking to expand to Cambodia by 2016 to help small-scale farming develop into commercial agriculture and to strengthen the agriculture sector, a senior executive from Grow Asia said. ...

A prolonged regional drought is expected to push Thai and Vietnamese rice prices up by 10 to 15 per cent, narrowing the price gap that has kept Cambodian rice exporters from securing major international supply orders, one of the Kingdom’s biggest rice exporters said yesterday. ...

Fish farms in Sihanoukville have lost an estimated 100 tonnes of fish to an aquatic parasite infestation in the past five days, Fishery Administration officials said yesterday.The parasite, known as “marine velvet” or Amyloodinaum Ocellatum, feeds on fish tissue – giving it a powdered look ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen’s announcement on Facebook yesterday that the annual tax on vehicles used by limited-income families, including tractors, would be abolished was met with indifference by small-scale farmers, who said high interest rates on loan were a concern, not the negligible tax assessed ...

The fate of 70 million people rests on what happens to the Mekong river. With world leaders meeting in Paris next week for crucial UN climate talks, John Vidal journeys down south-east Asia’s vast waterway – a place that encapsulates some of the dilemmas they ...