The Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) continues to give high priority to the development and modernisation of the agricultural sector to enhance competitiveness in the domestic, regional and international markets, said Prime Minister Hun Manet.

Presiding over the closing ceremony of the 2023 Annual Meeting of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries on Jan. 30, Mr Hun Manet said, “A large number of Singaporean companies and the group of investors from the United States and Japan are evincing interest in our country’s agriculture sector.”

RGC has increased investment in supporting infrastructure such as irrigation systems, rural transport systems, logistics, electricity and process facilities, promoting economic development linked with diamond cooperation, building fish and rice corridors and strengthening the use of technology, innovation, and digital transformation, the Premier added.

He went on to add, “The government also focus on creating human capital and provides fiscal incentives to improve quality efficiency, productivity and security aimed at enhancing the competitiveness of the agricultural products in the domestic, regional and international markets.”

During the ceremony, Mr Hun Manet emphasised that RGC prioritise the development and modernisation of the agricultural sector through the launch of the Pentagonal Strategy – Phase One, focusing on six priority policy projects which have been implemented since last year to address the challenge in the future.

“The National Agriculture Development Policy 2022-2030 aims to turn the agriculture industry into a modern, competitive, sustainable and climate-resilient agriculture while the National Cashew Policy 2022-2027 will transform our country into a cashew emperor in the future,” he explained.

Speaking to Khmer Times, Uon Silot, President of Cashew nut Association of Cambodia (CAC) said, “Contributing to achieving the dream of becoming a cashew emperor, our association has set out several long-term plans such as organised training sessions for farmers to improve production yield and convert them from normal farmers to become agri-business farmers.

Conduct more research to develop new cashew varieties that are resistant to climate change, build up a community warehouse so that raw cashew nuts to supply the whole year’s demand of local consumers, increase processing plants to gain more value-added from cashew nuts, and transform Kampong Thom province into a cashew nut industrial zone for both production and processing goods, he added.

He continued that to successfully implement the projects, CAC has appointed four representatives to help boost the market and attract more investors from different countries, such as China, Japan, Singapore, and India.

According to the Premier’s post on social media, RGC continues to implement three major principles, the first is to exempt taxes on agricultural land, family farmland and imports of agricultural equipment.

The second principle is on VAT exemption on basic food items for people’s daily lives until the end of 2028 and the last is to extend two more years of tax incentives until the end of 2025 for domestic manufacturing enterprises on 14 types of agricultural products such as rice, milk rice, corn, bean, pepper, cassava, cashew nuts, rubber, mango, banana, aquaculture, animal husbandry, longan from Pailin province, local palm oil products which is a raw material for making animal food.

Hor Sereyvath, Chairman of Innovation & Development Investors Association (IDI) told Khmer Times, “Rice, pepper, rubber, cassava and cashew are the flagship products that can be found both in eastern and western provinces of Tonle Sap River regions.

These products and other agriculture crops require advanced processing facilities to meet the buyer standards and consumer demands if the producers intend to process and export to the Japanese, European and United States markets.