The bitter aftertaste of a sugar deal gone bad
Houy Mai has lost everything to the global demand for cheap sugar and biofuel. The 54-year-old mother-of-eight has fought a years-long battle with Mitr Phol, Asia’s biggest sugar producer and one of three major suppliers to Coca-Cola. Her family was left homeless and without a sustainable income in 2009 after military police set fire to her house – along with about 100 others – in Kaun Kriel commune’s Bos village. Her children have been forced to leave school to find jobs, and her youngest child was born in prison, where Mai was jailed on charges linked to her opposition to the plantation company. … That Mitr Phol planted fewer than 220 hectares of sugar at its Oddar Meanchey plantations – about 1 per cent of what it promised – does not change things for Mai and other villagers in the area. Their complaints were taken to the Thai Human Rights Commission, and in 2011, the concession holder switched to growing cassava for biofuel after Thailand banned Mitr Phol from importing sugar from Cambodia. Meanwhile, those evicted and others who have managed to hold onto their homes struggle to put food on the table, some resorting to foraging for wild mushrooms to earn enough money for a bowl of rice. In March, the government issued a decree that cancelled Mitr Phol’s concessions, covering about 20,000 hectares – almost two times the legal limit. But the area now swarms with soldiers who have taken over numerous sawmills allegedly operated before the pullout by Mitr Phol subsidiaries Angkor Sugar, Cane and Sugar Valley, and Tonle Sugar Cane. Mitr Phol denies it was involved in the timber business. …
May Titthara and Daniel Pye
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/post-weekend/bitter-aftertaste-sugar-deal-gone-bad
