Agriculture

More than one hundred villagers dressed as the forest people from the hit film “Avatar” protested in the Cambodian capital Thursday against the destruction of the country’s Prey Lang forestThey say the forest, which is a source of livelihood for some 200,000 mainly indigenous people, ...

Cambodia’s TTY Corporation Co Ltd signed a $20 million deal yesterday with the state-owned China Grain Reserves Corp to process and export rice to China. The deal between TTY Corp and China Grain Reserves Corp’s Guangzhou branch, called Sinograin, was sealed with an agreement to ...

The China National Food Industry (Group) Corp and Cambodia’s Le Ye Rubber Co. on Sunday signed a cassava purchase deal. The agreement was signed between Cai Yongfeng, the president of China National Food Industry Group, and Gao Hong Zhi, CEO of Le Ye Rubber Co. ...

In the latest government backed appropriation of protected land, nearly 20,000 hectares of the Boeung Per wildlife sanctuary have been reclassified as state private land for agro-industrial development. Two sub-decrees, obtained by The Post this week and initialed by Prime Minister Hun Sen on July ...

Ms Sam On, 37, has already lost her house. It was one of three homes razed in April by Kratie provincial military police, environment officials and workers of the Sovannvuthy rubber company, after a tense stand-off with about 100 villagers that villagers said ended with ...

The European Union has said that it has no plans to suspend Cambodia’s duty-free trade access even though there have been concerns over land evictions as a result of economic land concessions. The EU is seeking that human rights are not the cost of trade ...

Lion Forest Industries Berhad will seek to acquire a 9,995 hectare concession in Cambodia, the latest in a number of Malaysian firms eyeing the Kingdom to increase land banks this year. The firm aims to cultivate rubber and palm oil on the proposed concession in Preah ...

Cambodian officials yesterday touted the potential for green energy to meet its goal of bringing electricity to 100 percent of households by 2020. The Kingdom was looking to develop solar energy, small-scale hydropower and biomass-fuelled power to meet the target, said Ministry of Industry, Mines and ...

Environment Minister Mok Mareth yesterday defended the recent surge of economic land concessions granted by his ministry inside the country’s enviornmental conservation areas, saying that they would do more to help the areas than hurt them. Mr Mareth’s comments came while responding to questions at ...

Mong Reththy Group has suspended a $115 million sugar plantation project that has been three years in the works, CPP Senator Mong Reththy said yesterday. According to Mr Reththy, the suspension is due to “internal” issues facing the French partner in the project, Groupe Sucres ...

Describing a 5,000-hectare land dispute between Koh Kong villagers and a sugar company owned by CPP Senator Ly Yong Pgat as “a complicated case,” Koh Kong Provincial Court has decided to try it before a three-judge panel, a lawyer for the villagers said yesterday. The ...

Rubber exports from Cambodia increased 84 percent in the first six months of 2011 compared to the same period last year, according to figures released by Camcontrol, the government’s import-export inspection agent. Cambodia exported 21,511 tons of rubber, worth $102 million, during the first half ...

Crocodile farmers are feeling the pinch after a year of volatile crocodile prices and market demand. Despite the spike in crocodile prices late last year – which followed on the heels of worrying lows between 2005 and 2007 – demand for the live exports of ...

North Korea aims to import rice from Cambodia, as well as explore for mineral resources, officials said yesterday. High-ranking officials from Pyongyang met with their Cambodian counterparts in Phnom Penh yesterday, signing agreements on economic and trade cooperation.The two countries had signed seven cooperation agreements beginning ...

In Svay Rieng province villagers are in their fourth day of protests after authorities refused to meet with them to discuss a land concession that Metapheap Company has received in order to open a rubber plantation. The company was granted a 1,230 hectare land concession ...

Villagers in Svay Rieng province from 10 villages have taken part in an armed protest against the granting of a land concession in the forest that will turn it into a rubber plantation. The villagers claim to have been on the land since 1979 and ...

60 villagers in Svay Rieng province demonstrated to prevent the Mittapheap Rubber Company from moving its machinery into the area. The company has plans to clear 500 hectares of land in what the villagers claim is their protected community forest. Adhoc is investigating the claims ...

According to human rights group Adhoc, five agro-farming concessions granted to Chinese firms are adversely affecting 3,000 families in Preah Vihear province. The concessions have come with warnings of possible land disputes and potential protests. Prime Minister Hun Sen granted the economic land concessions to ...

Earlier this month Prime Minister Hun Sen approved five more economic land concessions totally 44,780 hectares in the Preah Vihear province. Largely distributed to agri-business companies there is fear that the concessions will lead to deforestation. Heng Roy International, Heng You International, Lan Feng International, ...

Senator Ly Yong Phat, owner of the Phnom Penh Palm Sugar and Kampong Speu Sugar companies, has released a statement as a result of US diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks that describe him as “The King of Koh Kong”. He answers such questions as why ...

CPP Senator Lao Meng Khin was joined by his wife as they broke ground on the controversial project taking place at Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak Lake. They unveiled the architectural renderings of the towers to be built on what used to be the site of ...

Rights groups have alleged that villagers are being pushed off their land to make way for sugar plantations by companies such as LYP Group, owned by Senator Ly Young Phat. The issue was raised with the Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomuoja and the Minister for ...

15 new projects worth a total of $110 million have been approved by Cambodia’s investment board in May. The Council for Development of Cambodia has approved two rubber plantations worth $60 million. Cin Qian Investment Co, a Chinese firm, has been approved for developing a ...

Sixty community representatives from Preah Vihear and Kampong Thom provinces expressed concern yesterday over a string of recent economic land concessions granted within the bounds of the Boeung Per Wildlife Sanctuary. At a press conference held in Preah Vihear’s Rovieng district yesterday, they claimed the ...