CP to raise production of feed by 20 percent

via CAAI News Media

Friday, 05 February 2010 15:02 Chun Sophal

CAMBODIA’S biggest animal feed producer CP Cambodia Co Ltd announced Thursday that it would increase production 20 percent this year in a bid to respond to farmers’ demand.

Wittaya Kreangkriwit, vice president of CP Cambodia, a subsidiary of its Thai parent firm, told the Post that his company would produce 144,000 tonnes of animal feed to sell throughout the country at US$500 per tonne.

“We want to encourage more and more farmers to raise animals in order to reduce meat imports from other countries into Cambodia,” he said.

In 2009, the company, which is located in Phnom Penh, sold 120,000 tonnes of animal food to its customers at US$460 per tonne, according to company data. Total sales were worth US$55.2 million. This year, sales are expected to reach $72 million, the firm estimates.

According to Wittaya, in 2010 the company expects to buy 100,000 tonnes of red corn, currently purchased at 1,100 (US$0.23) riels per kilogram, 6,000 tonnes of cassava at 850 riels per kilogram and 1,500 tonnes of soybeans at 2,400 riels per kilogram.

Rising prices

Last year, the company bought red corn at 850 riels per kilogram, cassava at 400 riels per kilogram and soybean at 2,000 riels per kilogram as food prices fell sharply on the highs experienced in the third quarter of 2008.

Kao Phal, director of the Department of Animal Health and Production at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, said Thursday that increasing animal feed would lead to a rise in domestic meat production.

He added that many farmers are raising pigs, chickens and ducks on both subsistence and commercial farms because of high demand.

“Animal feed will, in the future, be used more and more as a basis for expanding animal farms to support meat exports needed by international markets,” he added.

Experts said they believed that farming in Cambodia is gradually becoming more commercial.

Yang Saing Koma, president of the Cambodian Centre for Study and Development in Agriculture, said that this is the case within pig and chicken farming in particular.

“Raising animals is a good choice for our farmers because they have a cheap local animal food supply,” he said.