Startup Promises a Future for Former Boeng Kak Residents

In mid-August, on day seven of production at the Coco Khmer social enterprise, the team experienced a setback. Temperatures in the fermenting room must remain between 35 and 40 degrees to produce the organization’s virgin coconut oil, but the temperature on that rainy day refused to rise above 29 degrees. “So we had zero separation of 44 kilos of coconut,” company founder Rob Esposito said in an interview earlier this month at the firm’s new production facility nearby Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak area. … Coco Khmer, which began operating in August, now trains and employs seven formerly evicted residents from the Boeng Kak lake area to produce quality coconut oil, which is used in cooking. On the day production faltered in August, Mr. Esposito told his employees they could go home, saying he would pay them for the full day’s work and try to fix the problem himself. But the workers had other ideas. “They were convinced that [the problem] wasn’t the temperature. So they asked instead, ‘can we just buy the coconuts off of you and do a test ourselves?’” Their solution proved semi-successful. The group was able to produce a pure curd, even though the yield for oil came up short and the quality was questionable. But the results were not Mr. Esposito’s focus. “Instead of going home, they chose to do it their way and see if they were right,” he said. “That’s so fantastic.” … While traveling in Phnom Penh in March 2013, Mr. Esposito met with Barb Eason, the cofounder of VOICE, a nonprofit providing support for Boeng Kak residents. Because many are uneducated and from low socioeconomic backgrounds, residents of the Boeng Kak area have difficulty finding work that isn’t exploitive or physically challenging, Ms. Eason told him. … Currently, the team produces 8 liters of oil from 100 coconuts per day. The aim is to produce 24 liters from 300 coconuts. Coco Khmer also hopes to employ more Boeng Kak community members as manufacturing expands to incorporate new products, such as soap, beauty products and flour. The team has already experimented with delectable-smelling scrubs—a mixture of virgin co­conut oil, brown sugar, cinnamon and vanilla and another made of sea salt, virgin coconut oil, lime zest and a touch of lemon essence. Coco Khmer expects to be making a profit by December, which will go to employees and eventually toward funding a local community center run by VOICE. …

Devon Geary and Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/startup-promises-a-future-for-former-boeng-kak-residents-41532/