Natural rubber Price hike continues

The Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries (ANRPC) has estimated total world natural rubber (NR) production this year to be at 9.95 million tonnes, up by 4.9% from 9.49 million tonnes last year.

In spite of the higher forecast, the association said NR supply was seen moving up slowly over the past quarters, thus triggering continued recovery in rubber prices.

“The slow growth in supply, high oil price and strengthening of the baht, rupiah and ringgit can help NR prices to stay strong but the short-term outlook is clouded by uncertainties from the debt crisis in the United States and the eurozone,” said the ANRPC in its latest July report.

Members of ANRPC Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Vietnam, China, Sri Lanka, the Philippines and Cambodia controlled about 92% of the commodity’s global supply.

Malaysian interest up in Cambodia’s land concessions

Lion Forest Industries Berhad will seek to acquire a 9,995 hectare concession in Cambodia, the latest in a number of Malaysian firms eyeing the Kingdom to increase land banks this year.

The firm aims to cultivate rubber and palm oil on the proposed concession in Preah Vihear province, with a total investment of 11.77 million ringgit (US$3.9 million), according to a filing on the Bursa Malaysia late on Wednesday.

Lion Forest halted its operations in Malaysia and China and is seeking to tap into a new core business and diversify its earnings stream, the statement said.
“For investors looking to grow and process crops, Cambodia is an ideal location as it has plenty of land available for agricultural concessions,” it said.

Cambodian rubber strides on

Swift Resources, a rubber company with more than 3,800 hectares of rubber plantation in Kratie province, is preparing to raise funds with an initial public offering on the Hong Kong stock exchange. While the price of rubber remains high, the company is looking to fund further expansion of its plantations in Mondulkiri, Ratanakkiri and Steung Treng provinces, Kong Kimny, administrative manager of Swift Resources Snoul rubber plantation, said yesterday. 

Malaysia is third largest investor in Cambodia

Malaysia has become the third largest investor in Cambodia with its investments in the country amounting to US$3.4 billion from 1980.

Malaysian Ambassador to Cambodia, Datuk Pengiran Mohd Hussein Datuk Pengiran Mohd Tahir Nasruddin said Malaysia’a third placing comes after China and Korea.

The investment opportunities for Malaysia are still plenty especially in the agriculture sector considering the availability of large areas of land which are yet to be developed in the country, he said.

“Malaysian companies with potential can invest in the country’s main agriculture sector involving rubber, oil palm and corn,” he told Bernama at his office here after briefing a delegation of 20 students and staff from Universiti Malaysia Kelantan (UMK) currently on an academic visit to the country.

Vietnam Rubber Group helps Cambodian workers

The Vietnam Rubber Group’s (VRG) investment projects in Cambodia have helped improve living condition for local people, said Nguon Nhel, First Vice-President of the Cambodian National Assembly (NA).

Cambodian banks aim to ride agriculture boom

Cambodian banks are hoping that a surge in agricultural investment will bring in the customers they need to take out loans and put to work the cash flooding into the frontier market’s overcrowded banking system.

Cambodia, which is due to open a stock exchange this year, is attracting investment to rural areas as it seeks to move from exporting primary crops to milling rice and packaging seafood to sell abroad.

Foreign donors have vastly expanded rural road networks and firms from Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and beyond are scrambling to buy land and expand rubber and rice plantations. But while the streets of Phnom Penh are cluttered with bank branches and cash machines, banks have ignored rural areas.

Vietnamese trade with Cambodia jumps 41%

The trade value between Viet Nam and Cambodia in the first five months rose by 41% to more than US$1 billion, the Viet Nam Trade Office in Phnom Penh said.

Viet Nam’s exports were worth $891 million, an increase of 139 per cent, while Cambodia’s exports rose by just 3.2 per cent to $124 million.

Bilateral Vietnam trade up with increasing imports

Cambodia’s bilateral trade with Vietnam has increased by 41 percent to the end of May compared to the period last year, according to figures from the Vietnam Trade Office in Phnom Penh.

The growth comes due to the increased presence of Vietnamese investors in the Kingdom, said Tran Tu, a trade attaché at the trade office.

“Now they are carrying out their investments, so they need to import raw materials and machinery in order to do business here. That’s why our exports to Cambodia rose dramatically,” he said.

Total bilateral trade for the first five months reached just over US$1 billion, a jump from $718 million in the same period last year, according to the Vietnam Trade Office in Phnom Penh. 

Opposition asks Hun Sen to protect Prey Lang forest

The Sam Rainsy Party has sent a request to Prime Minister Hun Sen requesting that he cancel economic land concessions in Prey Lang forest, in the east of the country, where thousands are villagers say their livelihoods are under threat.

Nine SRP parliamentarians singled out more than 6,000 hectares in a concession to a Vietnamese company, CRCK, among others, and suggested the forest be listed as a Unesco World Heritage site.

Hun Sen approved a 70-year lease to CRCK in September 2009, clearing the way for a contract between the company and Ministry of Agriculture for the clearance of forest for a rubber plantation.

Cambodia to facilitate Vietnam’s rubber planting (English/French)

The Cambodian Government will create the best favourable condition for the Vietnam Rubber Group (VRG) to plant rubber trees in Cambodia, affirmed Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Yim Chhayly.