While Cambodia have prioritized six commodities for domestic market and export, in-depth studies of these value chains needed to be conducted to have a better understanding of market opportunities, supply constraints, risks and threats faced by smallholder farmers, entrepreneurs and consumers, as well as of opportunities to support socio-economic development and sustainable development goals.

The studies have been financed and technically overseen by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and coordinated by the Ministry of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) under direct leadership of the Department of Planning and Statistics (DPS). The six prioritized commodities are mango (Keo Romeat), cashew, maize (red corn), cabbage, pig, and chicken. They are considered as strategically important for food security and nutrition, and for their potential contribution to decent employment and reduction of rural poverty.

Mr Antonio Schiavone, Head of Operations and FAO Representative in Cambodia a.i. commented that “the nationwide studies of the six commodity value chains aim to provide a comprehensive understanding of challenges and upgrading opportunities through investigation of market opportunities, commercial viability and potential benefits for value chain actors including producers, collectors, processors, retailers and other stakeholders in each selected value chain.”

Moreover, acknowledging how important access to market information is for value chain actors  such as smallholder farmers to make informed decisions, an assessment of MAFF’s Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS) was also carried out together with additional lenses on other emerging digital market applications. The assessment aimed to identify information gaps and upgrading possibilities to ensure the system is functional, robust, and provides timely and quality information to users at scale.

The analysis of the performance for the key selected value chains and of AMIS will become an important instrument for MAFF and other relevant ministries, including the Ministry of Commerce, upon which to base their policy planning and development. The key findings will be used to support the Agricultural Development Policy 2021–2030 and its actionable Agriculture Sector Master Plan 2030 and to support the implementation of ongoing value chain programmes and projects in Cambodia.

According to Mr Mak Mony, Director of the DPS-MAFF, “the findings from these value chain studies are important and to concretely consolidate into policies and actions. They will help agriculture sector to achieve its goal and vision, which is to enhance livelihoods and income of smallholder famers through the promotion of commercialization, diversification of agriculture, import substitution and increased export of high value crops.”

The findings were presented by the research team in a virtual validation workshop to around 80 key technical experts and representatives from national and sub-national government offices, academia, development partners, civil societies and private sectors. The meeting aimed to discuss and validate findings and policy recommendations, and gather more inputs from key stakeholders and value chain players.

In terms of challenges, the studies showed common issues facing the value chains under study. These included fragmented supply chain, insufficient processing capacity, limited resources dedicated to marketing and production, poor storage and transportation infrastructure, limited irrigation, shortage of extension workers price fluctuation, limited access to market information, limited capacity to comply with Sanitary and Phytosanitary Standards (SPS), low productivity, high cost of inputs, emerging pest and diseases, and impacts of climate change.

“Despite these weaknesses –said Eva Gálvez, lead technical officer on FAO’s side–, the studies indicate that the mango, cashew nut and maize value chains have potential for export to neighbouring countries especially China, South Korea, Viet Nam and Thailand. To realize this export potential, Cambodia needs to address key challenges ranging from improving production to complying with quality and safety standards required by destination countries, especially Good Agricultural Practices and SPS.”

Cambodian consumers appreciate the quality of locally-produced chicken, pig and cabbage, despite the shortcomings of these chains, suggesting an untapped potential to better meet local demand by addressing the bottlenecks identified, the studies found. In particular, consumers prefer the meat of the local breed chicken and pig, which they consider delicious and safer, being raised traditionally, free from antibiotics and hormones.

Representatives from technical agencies also indicated the usefulness of these studies for their respective work and requested FAO assistance in collaborating with local research and academic institutions to conduct studies on other strategic agricultural commodities in Cambodia using a value chain approach.

Mr Phin Sopheap, vice-rector of the Prek Leap National College of Agriculture said that he would be interested in using the same study approach for student thesis or assignments and would plan to explore further joint research activities with FAO in order to benefit from the agency’s technical expertise in the food and agriculture sector. In this regard, the organizers highlighted that in 2020 government officials from 16 provinces of Cambodia were trained to become master trainers on methodologies and data collection for value chain study (read more here). 

Mr Mak Mony, Director of DPS-MAFF, confirmed that the inputs received from the consultation workshop were critically important to enrich the final reports, which will be submitted to MAFF management for further review and recommendations, and will be eventually published for dissemination.