Tuesday, 31 July 2012

Cashew nut exports increased more than 10-fold, to 4,231 tonnes, in the first half of the year compared to the same period in 2011 when Cambodia exported 392 tonnes, according to data released by the Ministry of Commerce.

The price of the cashew nuts dropped about US$450 from $1,137 per tonne in 2011, to $685 per tonne for 2012. This year’s revenues were $2,898,806 compared to last year’s of $444,669.

Kong Putheara, the director of the Statistics and Information Department, said that cashew nuts grown in Cambodia were absorbed by the Vietnamese market for processing for export or to return to Cambodia.

The huge increase in exports indicates the large demand for Cambodian agricultural products remained high, while some other products were affected by the euro zone debt crisis, he said.

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Thursday, 19 July 2012

Cambodia will push to finalise a rice-exporting bloc with four other regional countries by the end of the year in a bid to become the world’s “food basket”, according to the Ministry Of Commerce.

The group of countries including Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Laos and Myanmar – and known as the Association of Milled Rice Exporting Countries – would also look to become a counterbalance to Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

The concept of the association had been put forward by Prime Minister Hun Sen and Thailand’s ousted Prime Minister Thakshin Shinawatra about five years ago. “The five countries will be the world’s food supplier – what we could call the food basket of the world,” said Minister of Commerce Cham Prasidh. “We would be able to supply the whole world. We would not increase prices but try to find a way to facilitate trade with [other countries].”

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Tuesday, 17 July 2012

When London-based real estate investor Sanjay Dhir heard about Cambodia from his Indian partner Manoj Varma, he took a trip here in October 2010 and stopped by the roadside to meet the operators of a portable rice mill.

He knew then that Cambodia was ready for new rice mills. After working with his partners for the last year and a half, Long Grain Co Ltd announced the deal last week for a $20 million investment in a new rice mill in the Oddong district, about 40 kilometres from Phnom Penh. “When you have been through many crises in various countries, trends and fashion changes, you learn one thing: people have got to eat,” Dhir said.

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June 8, 2012

CAMBODIAN Ministry of Tourism and tourism experts agree that food and beverage tourism is one of four major services among total 11 services in the tourism industry that plays an important role in feeding Cambodia’s tourism sector.

Minister of Tourism Thong Khon told the Post that for every country of the world, food was the primary recognition mechanism for national taste for visiting tourists.

“Food and beverage service is one of four main important services that include lodging, transport, and entertainment, among eleven in the tourism industry,” he said. “We see that nowadays the industry needs to improve in quality and creating variety of foods to serve all nationalities of tourism.” “In other countries, we always test the quality of their foods first because we need to know their national test,” he added.

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