A refined approach?
Hundreds of trucks hauling sugarcane queue up along the dusty roads that cut a path through a plantation in Kampong Speu province. Their destination: Cambodia’s most advanced sugar refinery. Its owners say the landmark project, run by the Phnom Penh Sugar Company and its president, ruling party senator Ly Yong Phat, is a boon for Cambodia’s poor and a pathway to greater prosperity. Rights groups, however, say the outfit produces “blood sugar”, a commodity whose profits serve Cambodia’s elite at the expense of locals and their land. As this dispute and the industry that it’s part of face increased global scrutiny, the firm’s opening of its doors to the media last week offered a rare glimpse inside one of its most well-known but least understood ventures. … Cambodia is traditionally a net importer of sugar. In 2012, more than $8.5 million was spent on importing nearly 20,000 tons, down from 31,000 tons in 2011, thanks to an increase in domestic supply. Increased domestic production has also meant increased exports. Under the EU’s Everything But Arms trade scheme, least-developed countries like Cambodia enjoy duty-free access to EU markets. Sugar exports to the EU more then quadrupled last year, from 15,500 tons in 2012 to close to 65,000 in 2013. Rights groups have called on sugar to be revoked from the trade benefit scheme, saying the preferences enable rights abuses, which normally take the form of land grabs and forced evictions. …
Daniel de Carteret
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/refined-approach
