State loan for local cassava processor

Tuesday, 14 February 2012
Sieam Bunthy
The Phnom Penh Post

State-owned Rural Development Bank (RDB) has loaned a domestic cassava processor and exporter US$1 million in a bid to tame instability in the market for the crop, the bank said.

Loan recipient Power Unity Cambodia Investment Ltd will use the loan to buy cassava from Cambodian farmers and then export to China.

Cassava farmers, especially those in the Kingdom’s northeast, have expressed concern on unstable crop orders primarily from Thailand.

PRICE-SUPPORT POLICY NEEDED TO PROTECT CAMBODIAN FARMERS

PRICE-SUPPORT POLICY NEEDED TO PROTECT CAMBODIAN FARMERS

Opposition leader Sam Rainsy last week wrote to The Cambodia Daily the following letter:

"In your January 31 article titled “Thais Ask Cambodia To Curb Cassava Exports” (page 25) you exposed problems encountered by Cambodian farmers struggling with falling cassava prices. You pointed to Thailand’s request that Cambodia restricts its exports of the agricultural produce but you didn’t explain why the neighboring country is entitled to do so.

Contrary to the Cambodian government, which abandons farmers to market price fluctuations and leaves them in a desperate situation, the Thai government has been steadily following a socially oriented policy that consists of supporting and stabilizing agricultural prices so as to protect their farmers’ revenue and living conditions.

Every year the Thai government spends millions, if not billions, of dollars to buy cassava (or tapioca), rice, maize and palm oil under a well known agricultural intervention scheme and it exports, at a loss in times of falling prices, those agricultural products in a bid to prop up domestic prices.

The Thai government is actually subsidizing Thai farmers through a costly price-support mechanism. Understandably, they want to reserve the benefits of its price-support policy for Thai farmers only. This is the reason why they restrict access to the Thai market for many Cambodian farm products for which there could be a huge price differential between the two countries.

Many countries all over the world are doing the same as Thailand regarding their agriculture and trade policies. The moral is that Cambodia actually needs a responsible and caring government to implement appropriate policies because, more than anyone else, vulnerable Cambodian farmers  deserve support and protection.

Sam Rainsy

Elected Member of Parliament

Former Minister of Finance

Cambodian farmers flock to cassava

June 24, 2011
Xinhua

Cassava farming is quickly expanding in Cambodia, especially in Battambang province as profit margins on the crop continue to rise, local media reported on Friday, citing industry experts and local farmers.

Prices for the plant, which is edible and is used in ethanol production, have risen considerably, fetching more than other cash crops such as cotton that are being grown in the province, Yang Saing Koma, president of Center for Study and Development in Agriculture was quoted as saying.

"Many people are now investing in cassava, due to the high prices. They also expect to gain more profit from cassava, as yields are more frequent," the Phnom Penh Post quoted Yang as saying.

"In 2010, the price was 200 to 300 riel a kilogram for cut and dried cassava, but it is reaching 700 to 800 riel a kilogram, due to increasing demand," farmer Chim Choeb said.

Cassava Prices Fall Hard in Kratie Province

By Chiep Mony, VOA Khmer
Original report from Kratie province
04 November 2008

Farmers of the cassava tuber in Kratie province have seen prices cut more than half this year, and some of them have vowed to stop growing it.

Prices for fresh cassava fell from 200 riel per kilogram to 80 riels per kilogram, but farmers say they don’t know why. There is virtually no market for dried cassava, farmers said, a commodity that drew 600 riel per kilogram in 2007.

Fifty-six-year-old farmer Voeung Chhun, who owns nine hectares of cassava in Snuol district, implored the government to help farmers find foreign markets.

Leang Seng, chief of Kratie’s agriculture department, said at least half of the province’s farmers were growing the plant on 12,000 hectares of land. The plant produces between 15 tons and 20 tons of cassava root per hectare.

Commerce officials met last week, he said, in an effort to find markets for the root. He was unsure why the prices had fallen so far this year.

Sum Sinamen, Kratie’s commerce department chief, said cassava from the province was exclusively exported to Vietnam, through Cambodian brokers. About 169,000 tons were exported in 2007, up from 118,000 tons in 2006.