News

Coca-Cola officially opened a new $100 million plant in Phnom Penh yesterday to expand its production capacity to meet increased demand for the Coke beverage in the Kingdom and Asean. The plant, situated on a 12.5-hectare land, in the Phnom Penh Special Economic Zone is able ...

Coca-Cola held the ground-breaking ceremony for its new $100 million production facility at the Phnom Penh Special Economic Zone yesterday, which when completed in 2016 will double the beverage behemoth’s Cambodian output over the next six years.The new facility, which was announced last November after ...

Villagers who have lost their land first to a Thai sugar company supplying Coca-Cola and then to a military unit in Oddar Meanchey province’s Samroang district yesterday petitioned the Agriculture Ministry to ask for it back. ...

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 ...

Coca-Cola will build a second factory in Cambodia, investing $100 million into a new plant in the Phnom Penh Special Economic Zone that will more than triple its current output, company officials said yesterday. The news comes on the heels of a meeting in November during ...

Commerce Minister Sun Chan­thol evoked the late U.S. President John Kennedy on Friday at a seminar about “rebranding” Cambodia that quickly turned into a promotional event for Coca-Cola. ...

Two major US beverage companies say they are mindful of alleged human rights abuses amid sugar plantations in Cambodia and will not do business with those proven to be involved in them. Representatives from Coca-Cola and Pepsi both said in emails to VOA Khmer that they ...

U.S. Ambassador William Todd and Commerce Minister Sun Chanthol praised each other for their dedication to the development of the Cambodian economy at a press conference in Phnom Penh on Monday, following a joint trade mission last month to the U.S. Mr. Todd and Mr. Chanthol, ...

Soft-drinks giant PepsiCo has pledged to take a “zero-tolerance” approach to land grabs by its sugar suppliers. In a statement posted on the company’s website on Tuesday, it said the move came in response to a campaign by Oxfam, which targeted Coca-Cola and PepsiCo. ...

European Union Trade Commissioner Karel de Gucht said he has no plans to launch an investigation into Cambodia’s much-criticized sugarcane plantations after a meeting with Commerce Minister Sun Chanthol in Phnom Penh on Tuesday. Bottom line: Cambodia’s free trade benefits to Europe are safe for ...

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 ...

Australia-based energy company Star8 officially launched operations on Friday at its solar-powered factory just outside of Phnom Penh. The ceremony marked the commencement of production on solar-powered tuk-tuks, the mainstay of the company. Hun Many, the youngest son of Premier Hun Sen, and Alison Burrows, the Australian ...

Investors in drinks giant PepsiCo have filed a shareholders resolution urging the company to account for alleged land-rights violations in Cambodia. The 14 shareholders – including Oxfam – are increasing the pressure on PepsiCo following Coca-Cola’s pledge earlier this month of “zero tolerance” towards land grabs. An ...

Koh Kong Sugar has offered to settle its yearslong dispute with Cambodian families who accuse its plantations of stealing their land, but the farmers remain wary of being able to secure a fair deal. The firm, a subsidiary of Thailand’s Khon Kaen Sugar Industry Limited (KSL), ...

Declaring that it has “zero tolerance” towards land grabbing, Coca-Cola has agreed to investigate a long running case in Cambodia where villagers are seeking court action against a company accused of seizing their land to make way for plantations linked to the supply of sugar ...

Land covering an area the size of Italy has been taken from indigenous communities around the world by suppliers to the biggest names in the food and drinks industry, according to a major new report. Coca-Cola and PepsiCo are among the companies criticised by Oxfam for ...

An international group that promotes the ethical sourcing of sugar for the food and energy industries has suspended the membership of U.K. sugar giant Tate & Lyle for failing to answer complaints that it was buying from Cambodian plantations accused of stealing land from local ...

A London-based sugar trade association aiming to promote a more ethical and sustainable industry will meet early next month to consider a request from Cambodian farmers that it eject U.K.-based sugar firm Tate & Lyle from the group unless it gives them back their land. Some ...

About a decade ago, global manufacturing firms staged a mass exodus to Asia in search of low-cost alternatives to increasing domestic wage demands and operational costs. The consensus was the continued development of a regional supply chain that had formed in countries like Vietnam and Indonesia, ...

Coca-cola and Smart Mobile have teamed up in a joint promotion to give away $1 million worth of prizes, including top-up minutes and 25 Samsung Galaxy S3 smartphones using numbers printed under bottle caps of Coca-Cola, Fanta and Sprite. The promotion started on November 1 ...

For many years, Phnom Penh’s villas have represented the most attractive and obvious options for both commercial and residential use in the city, but experts say the number of villas available is on the decline. The stock of villas is decreasing, due to the demolition and ...