Farmers have asked the government to intervene in the pig sector, where the prices of live hogs have plummeted and an alarming number of breeders are quitting the trade as money dries up, many of them smallholders who may have gambled a bit too much trying to recoup their losses. According to the Cambodia Livestock Raisers Association (CLRA), for this week ending December 4, the per-kilogramme rates for live hogs on the farm are highest in the Phnom Penh-Kandal and West regions, at 7,500 riel ($1.81), followed by the Southwest and Southeast (7,200 riel), Northeast (7,000 riel) and Northwest (6,800…
Author: Hin Pisei
The third and final inter-ministerial meeting on the National Policy on Cashew Nuts for 2022-2027 concluded on November 25, and the document will now be submitted to the Council of Ministers, or Cabinet, for review, according to the Ministry of Commerce. Key objectives of the national policy include reinforcing Cambodia’s capacity to grow, store, process, package, market, distribute and export cashew nuts and derived products, and establishing the Kingdom as a major producer and supplier regionally and globally. And industry insiders are counting on a substantial uptick in money pouring into the cultivation and processing of cashew nuts as a…
Huan Hai Bo Lai International Investment Co Ltd is making a $168 million investment to build a five-star hotel in Sihanoukville to tap into the promising potential of the local tourism industry. On November 25, the Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC), the Kingdom’s highest decision-making body for large-scale investments, said in a notice that it had approved the company’s requests to build and operate the proposed establishment, which is planned for Village 4, Commune IV and expected to create 955 jobs. Cambodia Association of Travel Agents adviser Ho Vandy sees the new hotel as “another step forward” for…
Technology adoption trends will keep driving forward, boosting productivity, cutting unnecessary costs, correcting drawbacks in the financial system, and delivering a host of other economic benefits, according to National Bank of Cambodia assistant governor Chea Serey on November 24. Serey was delivering her opening remarks at the 9th Annual Macroeconomic Conference, organised by the NBC and the UN Development Programme in Cambodia, and themed “Towards a Post Covid-19 Recovery and Resilience”. With minimal health risks associated with the Covid-19 coronavirus remaining, economic activity in key sectors is steadily recovering, she said, suggesting that more targeted recovery plans and related policies…
Cambodian “iron and steel” imports in the first 10 months of 2022 clocked in at $301.868 million, rising by 23.17 per cent year-on-year from $245.088 million, according to Customs. This category of items, corresponding to Chapter 72 of the harmonised tariff schedule, accounted for 1.169 per cent of the $25.818 billion value of the Kingdom’s total imports over the 10 months, General Department of Customs and Excise (GDCE) statistics show. Last month alone, the Kingdom imported $30.090 millions worth, up 60.8 per cent from $18.711 million in October 2021, and up 11.3 per cent from $27.025 million in September 2022.…
The Ministry of Commerce has put Cambodian milled-rice exports to the Middle East as a priority for ongoing talks on the Cambodia-United Arab Emirates Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CAM-UAE CEPA), according to minister Pan Sorasak. The commerce minister was speaking at the 2022 annual review meeting of the Cambodia Rice Federation (CRF), the Kingdom’s apex rice industry body. A CEPA is a type of free trade agreement (FTA) generally designed for a more holistic coverage beyond just commodities, and can contain provisions for services, investments, dispute resolution, intellectual property rights, government procurement, and additional forms of specialised economic cooperation. Cambodia…
The Cambodia-Canada commodity trade rose by almost one-fifth on-year to nearly $975 million in the January-October period, with local goods making up a weighty 96.97 per cent of the total, Customs reported, and two-way export flows are expected to pick up steam thanks to recent meetings held during this month’s dual ASEAN summits. The 10-month commodity trade between the two countries amounted to $974.830 million, up 18.54 per cent year-on-year from $822.393 million, according to the General Department of Customs and Excise (GDCE). Although Cambodian exports to Canada accounted for $945.315 million, up 19.66 per cent year-on-year from $789.979 million,…
The Kingdom exported 138,377.55 tonnes of fresh mangoes in January-October 2022, down by 31.54 per cent year-on-year from 202.1 kilotonnes, with Vietnam buying the lion’s share of 56.78 per cent at 78,566.23 tonnes, according to a new Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries report. The remaining batches of Cambodian-grown mangoes that were shipped abroad over the 10-month period went to Thailand (32,181.12 tonnes), mainland China (27,467.88 tonnes), South Korea (160.08 tonnes) and Hong Kong (2.24 tonnes), the report showed. Mango growers in the Kingdom typically get two crops each year from their trees, over a dry season harvest that usually…
Minister of Tourism Thong Khon on November 21 outlined seven key recommendations for more efficient and effective post-Covid-19 development of the eco- and community-based tourism segments, with emphasis on turning challenges into opportunities. Khon, who doubles as the National Committee for Management and Development of Tourism and Ecotourism Communities (NACTEC) chairman, was speaking at the opening ceremony of the first of two-day Third National Ecotourism Forum in Phnom Penh. The first two recommendations are: determining which ecotourism sites are national priorities; and incorporating activities associated with eco- and other forms of tourism into communities with significant perceived potential, regardless under…
Cambodian peppercorn exports plummeted nearly three-quarters in the first 10 months of 2022 from a year earlier, according to the agriculture ministry, a downturn that producers have pinned on low demand despite falling prices for the locally-grown spice, which has been tied to economic drag from the Ukraine conflict, a weakening euro against the greenback and other exchange rate fluctuations. In the January-October period, peppercorn exports reached 7,704.25 tonnes, marking a 72.12 per cent year-on-year decline from 27,633.77 tonnes, with Vietnam buying the lion’s share at 6,645.78 tonnes or 86.26 per cent, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries reported.…