Agriculture
Agricultural commodities, processing and products
Kratie Protest Puts Brakes on Land Demarcation
More than 100 people in Kratie province staged a peaceful protest on Sunday after excavators mobilized by a South Korean timber firm tried to clear and demarcate concession land, a commune official said yesterday. The company, Think Biotech, was granted 34,000 hectares of land on May ...
Tate and Lyle faces boycott over Cambodian sugar land grabbing claims
Following our investigation which highlighted allegations of human rights abuses in Cambodia’s sugar industry, activists are stepping up their campaign against sugar companies buying from the region. The call to boycott sugar company Tate and Lyle over allegations of illegal land seizures and human rights ...
Cambodian, Vietnamese militaries ink deals for quarry, rubber development projects
Cambodian and Vietnamese Defense Ministries on Friday signed two documents relevant to a joint venture for establishing a quarry and a rubber plantation project in Cambodia. According to a document briefed to reporters at the signing ceremony, the two deals included a quarry site establishment in ...
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-11/30/c_132011035.htm
Cambodia, Among Others, Feeding China's Demand for Timber
The growing market for timber in China is leading to widespread logging around the world, including in Cambodia, according to a report released yesterday. The report from London-based NGO the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) – entitled Appetite for Destruction: China’s trade in illegal timber – outlines ...
Minorities Choosing Private Over Communal
Though they held out hope for years that they would get communal land titles, hundreds of ethnic minority families in Mondolkiri and Ratanakkiri provinces have now opted to accept individual private land titles under Prime Minister Hun Sen’s new titling scheme. While individual titles offer immediate ...
Study reveals extent of Mekong dam food security threat
The planned construction of hydropowered dams on the Mekong River in South-East Asia could jeopardise livelihoods, water access and food security for 60 million people, across Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, according to a study. The study reports that dams will block fish migration routes and ...
Latex exports rise, revenues fall
Cambodia’s total rubber latex exports rose by 12 per cent in the first nine months of this year, according to new figures. However, revenues from the exports saw a dramatic 27 per cent decrease due to a fall in rubber prices in the international market, ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012112959998/Business/latex-exports-rise-revenues-fall.html
Cambodia inaugurates China-funded road in eastern part
Cambodia on Thursday inaugurated a 133-km China-funded national road No. 8 in Prey Veng province, hoping that the road will contribute to promoting social and economic development in the country’s eastern part. The road, which connects from Prek Tamak Mekong River Bridge to Vietnam border, cost ...
Land dispute back in court
Seven representatives of 415 families entangled in an unresolved land dispute with a deputy commander of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces have received a second summons to appear in Battambang Provincial Court to clarify accusations that they had vandalized the commander’s property, “They not only ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012112059821/National-news/land-dispute-back-in-court.html
Rice plant helps grow Sino-Cambodian ties
The rice-processing industry is bringing South China’s Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region and Cambodia even closer, as it becomes a new growth point for bilateral cooperation with the Southeast Asian nation aiming to increase its rice exports. A rice milling plant in Kampong Chhnang Province of central ...
http://europe.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2012-11/19/content_15939799.htm
Healthy growth for Cambodia’s economy
A NEW report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) says GDP growth in Cambodia over the next five years is likely to hit 6.9 per cent, the highest of any ASEAN country apart from Laos. However, the report warns that Cambodia needs to ...
Goods smuggled en masse from Cambodia to HCMC
Various smuggled goods, mainly cigarettes, brandy and sugar, are being brought from Cambodia to Vietnam’s Long An and Tay Ninh Provinces before being transported to HCMC for sale, a Tuoi Tre investigation has found. On November 9, Tuoi Tre reporters pretending to be traders went to ...
CIMB Bank Opens 4 new Branches in Cambodia
In an effort to reach a crowing number of customers in the agricultural sector Malaysia based CIMB bank Plc on Friday opened 4 new branches in Phnom Penh, Battambang and Kompong Cham cities. CIMB wants to provide loans to customers in the rice, ...
Officials worry over tiny rise in rice exports
Cambodian milled rice exports grew by only 0.52 per cent in the first 10 months of the year, compared to the same period last year, according to new figures from the government. Officials have expressed concern over Cambodia’s ability to reach its export target of ...
Senator's 2nd Sugar Refinery to Start Up Monday
Two years after breaking ground, a sugar refinery situated on a pair of controversial plantation belonging to CPP Senator Ly Yong Phat and his wife will have its first test run on Monday, Prime Minister Hun Sen said yesterday. He said the refinery would be ...
Merit in rice trade plan
The cabinet on Tuesday approved a proposal allowing the Commerce Ministry to form a rice trade partnership with Asean’s four other rice-producing countries, namely Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar, to stabilise rice prices in the global market and to promote food security in the region. The ...
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/321297/rice-trade-area-plan-has-merit
Radio Free Asia reporter to face judge
A Radio Free Asia (RFA) reporter in Ratanakkiri province will be questioned at the provincial court today in relation to claims that he incited villagers to commit crimes against a rubber company that they have been locked in a land dispute with since 2004. Lim Chanlyda, ...
Govt okays 5-nation rice trade zone
The cabinet yesterday approved the Commerce Ministry’s plan to develop a rice trade partnership with Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam to stabilise international rice prices According to a source at the Commerce Ministry, the rice trade zone project will begin with Cambodia and will involve rice ...
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/320895/govt-okays-5-nation-rice-trade-zone
Senator Offers Cash Compensation to Evictees
CPP Senator and business tycoon Ly Yong Phat last week continued to offer families in Koh Kong province cash compensation to get them to drop out of a lawsuit against two sugar cane plantations he once owned, according to villagers. But villager Phann Khly yesterday ...
Slight fall in food price index
Global food prices fell 1 per cent or two points in the October 2012 Food and Agriculture Organisation’s (FAO) Food Price Index released on October 7, 2012. The index averaged 213 points, compared to September’s revised level of 215 points. According to the FAO, the decrease ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012110959664/Business/slight-fall-in-food-price-index.html
Destroyed houses spark debate in Kampot
A company owned by a board member of the Cambodian Chamber of Commerce has been accused of illegally destroying more than 80 houses in Kampot province’s Chhouk district, a claim vigorously denied by the firm and local authorities. Chan Pheng, a villager from Chi Bak village ...
Review of Land Concessions Foiled by Rain, Leeches
Six months after Prime Minister Hun Sen ordered a moratorium on the granting of economic land concessions (ELCs) and a legal review of the concessions that already exist, the Agriculture Ministry has yet to begin the review process due to rain, and the danger of ...
Refined sugar for domestic market
Phnom Penh Sugar will begin producing white sugar this month for the Cambodian market to reduce the demand for imported sugar, according to a spokeswoman for the firm. Chheang Kemsoun, a representative of Phnom Penh Sugar, told the Post yesterday the company would produce white sugar ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012110759620/Business/refined-sugar-for-domestic-market.html
As Climate Changes, Farmers Need More Help
The government is not doing enough to help farmers weather the destructive effects of drought and flooding brought on by climate change, leaving NGOs to provide aid and emergency relief in cases of natural disaster, agriculture industry leaders said at a forum yesterday. ...