Sugar Playing Catch-Up With Spice

15 March 2013
Independent European Daily Express
Agricultural production / Agriculture and fishing / Biofuel crops / Crop products and commodities / Economic land concessions and plantations / Economy and commerce / Environment and natural resources / Exports / Investment / Land / Land tenure and land titling / Pepper / Public land lease / Sugar / Trade
arsenic contamination / bio-pesticides / Bridges Across Borders / Cambodian Organic Agricultural Association / COrAA / EBA / EU / European Union aid / Everything but Arms trade agreement / FDI / forced evictions / foreign direct investment / France / Geographical Indication status / GI label / GI registration / GI Status / Japanese aid / Kampong Chhang province / Kampong Chhnang / Kampong Speu / Kampong Speu Palm Sugar Promotion Association / Kampot / Kampot pepper / Kampot Pepper Promotion Association / KPPA / KPSA / Land grabs / Ministry of Commerce / motorbike taxi drivers / palm sugar / palm tree / palm trees / pepper / Pepper Project / poisonous chemicals / Starling Farm / sugar / sugar cane / sugar cane industry / sugar cane plantations / sugar production / Sun Somnang / Taiwan / Takeo / Takeo Province / Tourism

Dotted with rice fields flanked by palm trees, Cambodia’s southeastern province of Kampong Speu is nothing short of picturesque. But behind the idyllic exterior is an on-going struggle to turn this region’s natural beauty into a global attraction and improve the lot of poor local farmers, as the neighbouring beachside Kampot province did just three years ago. Back in 2009, Kampot became to Cambodia what Champagne is to France – a region bestowed with the prestigious Geographical Indication (GI) status, which ensures a higher market value for specialty produce. … Here in Kampot, farmers supplying European gourmets with what is lauded as the best pepper in the world enjoy a higher daily wage than their counterparts in this Southeast Asian nation of 14 million people, 30 percent of whom live on less than a dollar a day. … Sun Somnang of the export company Starling Farm and a member of both the Kampot Pepper Promotion Association (KPPA) and the Kampong Speu Palm Sugar Promotion Association (KPSA) believes there is an urgent need to publicise palm sugar and attract tourists. Experts like Somnang and government officials seek to improve farmers’ lives in Kampong Speu, where the average gross annual income is 500 to 1,000 dollars. …

http://www.iede.co.uk/news/2013_1290/sugar-playing-catch-spice