Overview:
Agricultural is the main pillar in Cambodia’s economy. Statistically, Cambodia has 181,000km2 of land. With its population at only 14 million, people in Cambodia has a whopping of 85% are farmers. That makes 78% of Cambodia’s population as labourers. Cambodia’s land for plantation is around 630,000 Hectare and among that, 374,000 Hectare only makes up of 18% of the whole country’s land.
Content:
Agricultural is the main pillar in Cambodia’s economy. Statistically, Cambodia has 181,000km2 of land. With its population at only 14 million, people in Cambodia has a whopping of 85% are farmers. That makes 78% of Cambodia’s population as labourers. Cambodia’s land for plantation is around 630,000 Hectare and among that, 374,000 Hectare only makes up of 18% of the whole country’s land. However, in this more than 6 million Hectare of land reserved for plantation; there are only around 260,000 hectares of land which has already been cleared but not cultivated. There are still many more lands ready to be used for cultivation. Besides, Cambodia has very fertile lands and there is no natural disaster like the typhoon and earthquake. It is a good place for plantation for the whole year round. The agricultural economist has even stated that Cambodia’s agricultural industry has a very impressive outlook. It is such a pity that Cambodia has such a great piece of land but with very low population density, the lack of monetary investors, technical experts and human resources. Having such great potential in the agricultural industry development, it has nonetheless attracted investors from Taiwan, China, Thailand and Vietnam.
The Cambodian government will be opening the land for lease to foreign investors to work on plantation. The lease duration for this development will be between 50 to 70 years. In this ideal land, the government of Cambodia is strongly encouraging the boost in economy on agricultural industry. Cambodia has a tropical climate and it has dry and wet season. But due to the traditional practice of the farmers, the agricultural farming mostly would be focusing during the rainy days. However, theoretically, Cambodia can actually have 3 rounds of cultivation. Crops mainly consist of planting rice, some other minor crops such as vegetables, cashew nuts, tropical fruits, corn, tapioca, soy bean, sesame seed, ground nut, sugar cane, tobacco leaf and sisal.
Other than that, the market is also looking at investing in factories which produce and process for rice products. At the moment, the construction of water conservation for Cambodia agricultural farming is too outdated. The plantation of paddy is only sowed in one season. After the plantation, there is a lack of technological management and has caused the production to be very low. And when the farmers only has a few processing machinery, they will not be capable to do large production line to sustain. Currently, the production of rice for the whole of Cambodia is 2.8 ton per hectare. Some areas are using the Vietnamese method in rice seedling which could achieve as much as 4 to 5 ton of paddy per hectare. The factory to process rice products is also very outdated. Other than for self-consumption, the rest of the paddy basically has been bought over by rice traders from Vietnam and Thailand. In 2010, Cambodia’s export benchmark for rice has reached 50,000 ton but also in that year, the export of unprocessed paddy reached 3.8million ton. With such a statistic, it is sufficient to show that rice processing in Cambodia has a considerable demand and seemingly room for improvement as well.
Statistics has also shown that 40% of the vegetables and meat in Cambodia are still imported from neighboring countries. Therefore, it is a good approach to develop breeding approach and cultivation of other crops while still investing in growing paddy. Among the crops, rubber industry is one of the important industries which will stimulate a faster growth in the economy. Cambodia is a tropical region and has a fertile land with red soil. Its climate is suitable for rubber trees to grow and the land has the natural characteristics for rubber plantation. Moreover, Cambodian government is being very encouraging by granting special terms and scientific management so that the rubber industry will speed up its growth. The rubber plantation is mainly located at the East of Kampong Cham Province. To increase the volume of the rubber produce and expand the plantation area, the government has implemented the plantation in the red soil region to grow rubber trees. This implementation is to boost the economy and also to expand the implementation from the North East to North West.
Although Cambodians are mainly working in the agricultural industry, the foundation of the domestic economy is still very weak. The infrastructure of the transportation, correspondence and communication, water and electricity supply, and water conservation are still very much in bad shape. The volume of the economy is at a very low level where annual income for an adult does not even reach USD300, so it is considered cheap labour. It may be good news for the investors, as it will lower the labour cost but somehow it also creates job opportunities for the labourers in Cambodia.
However it is undeniable that the country’s agricultural industry is slowing down lately. The production level is low, farming method is basically obsolete, extensive sowing but with only a scantly harvest and almost depend on the weather. And there is only around 10% of the planting area which uses machinery. The production of agricultural is as low due to the main reason of outdated infrastructure. There is basically not enough focus on finance and technology. The finance department of the central government and local government are only capable of disbursing salaries for the agricultural management officers. To enhance the agricultural technology in production, it depends on the market mechanism or assistance from other countries and also foreign investors.
Nonetheless, Cambodia still produces large volume of paddy annually. The annual total volume is more than 8 million tonne and it is ranked the sixth in exporting paddy in the world. Even though their planting technology is outdated, but because of that, the use of pesticide is somehow minimized, therefore the paddy fields are not badly polluted. Thus, the organic rice found in the market everywhere is mainly produced from Cambodia. The endless potential of this profitable opportunity is right in front of us. We welcome business investors to grab hold of this chance and not to let go of such incredible opportunity!
Project Location: Cambodia
Contact
Dato' Prof. Dr. Albert Tan
Tel：+603-8071 5951
Email：alberttyk@yahoo.com
Contract Farming
