Cambodia’s Ancient Silk Industry Hangs by a Fine Thread

Silkworm moths at the Silkworm Egg Production Center in Phnom Penh are set on newspaper to reproduce, a process that takes several hours. (Philip Heijmans/The Cambodia Daily)

By Philip Heijmans and Phok Dorn - October 22, 2012
The Cambodia Daily

There is a buzz that emanates from inside a room at the General Directorate of Agriculture in Phnom Penh.

It’s the sound of dozens of beige, furry silkworm moths, flapping their wings in rapid bursts as they do when face-to-face with a mate.

Individually inspected and paired, the prospective couples, buzzing continuously, have been placed on several sheets of newspapers to get on with the job of moth reproduction.

In four to six days, the female moths will be placed on a chemically treated egg sheet and isolated for oviposition before eventual eggs are sterilized and incubated.

Welcome to Cambodia’s lone Silkworm Egg Production Center, and to the techniques that are being used to prevent and monitor diseases that are currently killing off more than 50 percent of all silkworm production in the country.

Established by the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the production center is part of a $475,000 silk industry rehabilitation project that was launched in September 2009, and which saw the building of seven silk farms across the country and funded silk production training for those interested in the industry.

But after three years, Mey Kalyan, the program’s director for the FAO, is a very pessimistic man.

Funds from the FAO to run the Silkworm Egg Production Center will run out by the end of this year and no one else seems interested in investing in the project.

With local weavers and producers alike switching away from Cambodian silk—which is a years-long trend—due to high production costs and trade inefficiencies, the chances of reviving Cambodia’s age-old silk industry are dwindling, Mr. Kalyan said.

“In a nutshell, the farmers have stopped doing it. The weavers have stopped weaving and the plantations have stopped growing mulberries needed to feed silkworms,” he said, looking over a 3-hectare mulberry plantation at the government’s primary silk farm in Kandal province’s Kien Svay district.

“Disease is killing more than 50 percent of the silk worms, while those that do survive are a third of the size compared to other regional producers, so efficiencies are high,” Mr. Kalyan said.

“At the end of the day, these conditions are no longer acceptable to farmers in terms of the labor cost and land used for mulberry.”

Production of silk yarn in Cambodia has slowly declined in recent years, from 5 tons in 2009 to about 4 tons a year today, he said, adding that Cambodia imports the remainder of its 400-ton demand at a price tag of $25,000 per ton, nearly $10 million each year spent on imported foreign silk.

Cambodia’s tradition of silk production is one that dates back as far as the 13th century. Up to the 1940s, there were about 6,000 hectares of land under mulberry cultivation nationwide producing as much as 20 tons of silk yarn each year. In the intervening years, however, unrest in the countryside, civil war and the Khmer Rouge saw the industry decimated.

Today, Cambodia has just 40 hectares of mulberry plantations, and if the domestic demand for silk was to be supplied by domestic production, it would require about 4,000 hectares of land devoted to mulberry, Mr. Kalyan said.

Along with Cambodian consumers increasingly relying on cheaper imported silk, production costs are higher than ever for authentic Cambodian silk, which costs about $70 per kg of yarn, compared to just $30 per kg in 2010. With demand for local silk outstripping supply, prices have increased accordingly—presenting both a boon and a bust for the domestic industry.

Ven On, a 60-year-old silk weaver in Takeo province’s Prey Kabbas district, said that she is currently only able to make about $50 a month on her silk scarves and traditional sarongs, as buyers are mostly unable to afford them.

“I make only a little money and I can’t support my family,” she said, adding that because of the high cost of Cambodian yarn, there is very little money to be made.

While Ms. On said that she sells her hand-woven sarongs for between $120 and $150, depending on its quality, her profit is only 10 percent of that price.

The quality of Cambodian-made silk is, generally, of poorer quality due to the manual reeling process that produces a courser silk fabric, which is not desired in the luxury market.

In more developed silk-producing markets such as China and India, which together produce more than 90 percent of the world’s silk supply—the process is automated using reeling machines—while hand reeling, common in Cambodia, is more time-consuming and inefficient.

“When you reel by hand, you also have less production and the quality of the silk is comparatively low because the hand is not as refined” as machines, said Kong Samoeung, a silk expert at the Ministry of Agriculture.

“Research and development for this sector is very low. Technology is the future of silk,” he said.

Cambodia was once known for its particularly high-quality silk yarn spun from a yellow-colored cocoon known as “golden silk,” a rarity in today’s market, said fashion designer Eric Raisina, who owns high-end clothing stores in Siem Reap and Phnom Penh.

“Golden silk is really Cambodian silk production,” Mr. Raisina said in an email.

“In fact, it is the best in Southeast Asia because of its bright authentic yellow color and great texture [given] by irregular thread,” he said. “It is amazing and [does] not necessarily [need] dyes to change the color. Its natural color is more than enough to add value on the final product,” he said.

“Cambodian silk also used to be well known for its patterns.”

Even with the Cambodian silk sector facing such a bleak outlook, there is a glimmer of hope, Mr. Kalyan said.

After nearly three years of research, scientists at the Silkworm Egg Production Center are now in possession of a new silkworm hybrid called “Eri”—a type of silkworm that feeds exclusively on cassava, and does not need mulberry.

Cassava is planted throughout Cambodia, and access to the food of silkworms might encourage their breeding, he said.

“It is still too early since we just got it in last week, but the benefits of this one can be huge since Cambodia does not have to worry about cassava. But we will have to wait and see,” Mr. Kalyan said.