Crop products and commodities

Cassava prices in Cambodia experienced a sharp drop this month leading to heavy losses for smallholder farmers unable to quickly switch to more profitable crops and recoup their mounting losses, a provincial agriculture official said yesterday. ...

A Thai company has expressed an interest in exporting Kampong Speu’s Keo Romeat mangoes to Europe, America and Australia, according to a senior Agriculture Ministry official. ...

Growing demand for animal feed is driving up both the demand and price of corn, with smallholder farmers claiming the field crop offers a more stable market than cassava.Corn is grown on more than 140,000 hectares in Cambodia and can be harvested twice a year, ...

The rapid expansion of pepper cultivation in Cambodia coincides with the spice’s plummeting world prices, creating concerns that the glut of pepper ripening on vines across the Kingdom could further erode next season’s market prices and push the sector toward a collapse. ...

Khdib Sreymich, general manager of Coco Khmer, a Cambodia-based coconut cosmetics manufacturer, said her company is forced to import coconuts from Vietnamese suppliers to meet consumer demand for the company’s products. She explained that the farmers preferred to sell the coconuts when they were young, ...

Cashew nut prices seem to have fallen slightly at the end of harvest season compared to March this year, according to the cashew nut association in Kampong Thom province. Association president Oum Uon said prices for raw cashew nuts dropped from 7,000 riel ($1.75) per kilo ...

This is a typical morning for many villagers in Kampot province’s Kampong Trach district, where almost 400 families are members of Kampot Pepper Promotion Association. Black Kampot pepper currently sells for $15 per kilogramme, while red fetches $25 and white $28 per kg. ...

While Cambodian mango varieties such as Keo Romeat are well regarded in overseas markets, there are constraints which need to be addressed before large scale exports can be achieved, said the owner of the largest agro-industrial company in Cambodia yesterday. ...

Hong Kong-listed firm North Asia Resources Holding Ltd announced yesterday that it has purchased 14,000 hectares of an economic land concession in Pursat province from Henan Tianguan Enterprise Group for $53.2 million.​ ...

The slowdown of regional and global economies, especially in China, US dollar appreciation, unfavourable weather and global stock market speculation have plunged rubber prices, the Association for Rubber Development in Cambodia said.   ...

Pepper production inched up to close to 12,000 tonnes last year with cultivation on 6,124 hectares, but unstable prices have led to calls for geographic indicator (GI) certificates for a range of peppers. ...

Farmers in Pursat province are to benefit from a new vegetable market, allowing them to sell their produce for free for the first five years. The market is aimed at boosting sales of chemical-free vegetables for distribution across the country, to reduce reliance on imported vegetables ...

The Kingdom’s leading palm oil producer has projected revenues of $20 million this year as it targets another record-setting year for crude palm oil exports. ...

Several international and local coffee industry representatives gathered yesterday for the start of a three-day event promoting partnerships and franchising opportunities to satisfy Cambodia’s growing coffee cravings. ...

International commodity prices for cashew nuts are rapidly increasing due to lower supply from Cambodia and Vietnam which is driving up profits for the Kingdom’s farmers, according to industry stakeholders. ...

Rice millers have taken up less than a quarter of a $27 million emergency loan fund to stabilise prices of the grain, blaming late disbursement for the poor take up. ...

Cambodian rubber exports increased 32 percent during the first three months of the year compared with the same period last year, while prices grew 132 percent during the first quarter, an agriculture official said yesterday. ...

The government is urging vegetable growers to reduce their reliance on pesticides and cut imports from neighboring countries to protect the health of consumers.​​ ...

Laillou was stunned to find that 90 percent of coarse salt and 40-50 percent of fine salt was now not iodized. And all of it was labeled as iodized. Online journal Nutrients said iodine deficiency in Cambodia had become “a serious public health problem” just ...

Khmer New Year could bring a fruitful financial harvest for sellers of bananas—this year’s divinely selected crop—but some vendors say their sales have not yet ripened.Bananas were selected as this year’s official product by the angel Kemera Devi, who brings in the new year, so ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen said on Monday he had urged Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte to invest more heavily in Cambodia’s rice sector, while also acknowledging the need to lower rice processing costs and find new export markets to boost the competitiveness of Cambodia’s most important ...

Amid concerns that the European Union could reject shipments of Cambodian rice, exporters are pushing for more access to China as an alternative market for the Kingdom’s principal agricultural commodity. ...

Rubber prices are predicted to increase gradually as suppliers in the main producing countries restrict their stock for export to let the price recover after a long decline.   ...

Though the export of cassava from Cambodia to foreign markets increased by more than 50 percent in 2016, compared with previous years, export earnings were still low due to below-market-prices offered by buyers in Thailand and Vietnam.   ...