[PHNOM PENH POST]
Coffee plantations in Cambodia’s northeast are struggling to keep up
with rising international demand for the increasingly lucrative beans,
farmers and traders said.
Orders for Cambodian-grown coffee beans
from countries such as Japan and Korea as well as domestic demand has
increased rapidly, while prices have jumped nearly 40 percent since
2009, traders said.
Higher prices are ushering more farmers into
the market, but supply from Mondulkiri province’s roughly 30 hectares
of coffee plantation is falling short.
Im Saroeun, a farmer at
the Coffee Plantation Resort in Mondolkiri province, said his plantation
is turning down contracts from foreign importers. It simply cannot fill
the orders, he said.
“More and more companies are coming from
abroad,” Im Saroeun said as he strolled through the arabica and robusta
plants. “A Korean company came here a few weeks ago. They wanted to sign
a contract with us, but we didn’t have enough space.”
The Coffee
Plantation Resort, a three-hectare coffee farm about two kilometres
from the provincial town of Sen Monorom, exported five tonnes of coffee
beans to Vietnam and South Korea in 2010, Im Saroeun said. While the
plantation’s yields remain constant, the price of unground beans rose by
about 15 percent since last year, he said.
The coffee growing
industry is still in its infancy in Cambodia. Ministry of Commerce
statistics didn’t keep track of exports in 2010, but shows total exports
were worth US$226,000 in the first six months of 2011.
Nearby
Vietnam is the world’s second largest exporter of beans and has seen
demand outpace supply in recent weeks. It exported 1.09 million tonnes
of coffee worth US$2.3 billion during the 2010-2011 growing season, Dow
Jones reported previously.
Some Cambodian farmers are keen on the
crop. Mondulkiri Coffee, one of Cambodia’s largest coffee traders, is
discussing a 20 tonne-per-month deal with a Japanese company, Manager
Nun Dima said.
The province’s total yearly coffee output, however, is about 100 tonnes.
The
scale of the Japanese deal would require Mondulkiri Coffee to buy up
beans from other coffee-producing provinces such as Siem Reap and
eventually cultivate larger plantations in Mondulkiri province, he said.
Domestic
demand for locally-grown coffee has also seen dramatic increases during
the past three years as local restaurants and supermarkets have turned
away from Vietnamese coffee imports, traders said.
With customers
such as Lucky Department Store, Mondulkiri Coffee’s domestic sales have
increased nearly 2,000 percent since 2009, Nun Dima said.
“When
we started here, we sold about 20 containers [140 kilogrammes] monthly.
Now we sell up to 400 containers [2,800kg] in a month to local
businesses,” he said.
Tan Titi, manager at Chay Mao Coffee, attributes increased local demand to product recognition.
“A lot of customers are aware of Cambodian coffee now. They know the quality is better than before,” he said.
Chay
Mao Coffee, which grows and sells coffee to Bayon Supermarket, saw a 50
percent increase in sales this year, Tan Titi said.
The company also recently showcased their product at exhibitions in India and Korea.
There
is still plenty of room for growth in the domestic market, Num Dima
said. Coffee shops catering to locals largely serve cheaper, Vietnamese
coffee.
The Cambodian coffee industry will need to increase
efficiency and lower prices before it captures the lower end of the
market, he said.
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