The Chey Sambor Cashew Nut processing cottage industry plans to send the Kingdom’s maiden export to Japan next month, after the Cambodian government reopened inter-provincial travel.
In Lai Huot, owner of Chey Sambor, which is based in southwestern Kampong Thom province's Kampong Svay district, told The Post that her business would supply nine tonnes of cashew nuts to Japanese-owned Top Planning Japan Co Ltd, a partner in the construction of a $200,000 cashew nut processing plant.
According to Lai Huot, the first nine-tonne batch of cashew nuts was due to be shipped this month, but plans were delayed due to travel restrictions imposed to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
However, she said the nine tonnes of cashew nuts will be shipped to the company next month.
"Our partners want to export soon, I hope to be able to export as planned next month,"she said.
Lai Huot, who is also the president of the Chey Sambor Cashew Nut Processing Handicraft Association, said that due to high demand this year, her business plans to increase the amount of cashew nuts purchased from farmers to 500 tonnes for processing and export.
"We got a large amount of order from partners this year. So, we’re buying cashews at a reasonable price from our members to improve their livelihoods," she said.
Chey Sambor has the capacity to process two to three tonnes of cashew nuts per day and can peel 10 tonnes of fresh cashew nuts per day. According to the contract, the cottage industry will supply 90 tonnes of cashew nuts each year to the Japanese company in the first phase.
Despite coronavirus border restrictions, Cambodia exported more than 200,000 tonnes of cashew nuts to international markets in the first nine months of 2020, up 20.51 per cent year-on-year, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries reported.
The Kingdom shipped cashew nut products to the Vietnamese, Thai, Japanese, Russian, Chinese, Hong Kong, French, South Korean, Turkish and Bangladeshi markets during the period, the ministry said.
Cambodia exported more than 8.55 million tonnes of six agro-industrial crops, both formal and informal, worth more than $2.32 billion in 2020. These products include cassava, fresh mangoes, cashew nuts, fresh bananas, Pailin longan, and pepper, according to figures from the ministry.
