September 19, 2007

Import ban spells boom for Cambodian pig farmers

Cambodian farmers are dusting off their pig pens as local pig and pork prices have skyrocketed in the month following Prime Minister Hun Sen's ban on the imports of pigs and pork meat from foreign countries, the Cambodia Daily newspaper reported Wednesday.

The ban, which government officials said was issued in response to livestock disease abroad as well as the need to protect and develop the local pig farming industry, was issued on August 13.

Pig farmers welcome the ban as a boon to business and people's health, Srun Pov, first deputy president for the Cambodian Pig Raisers Association, was quoted by the newspaper as saying.

The selling price of live pigs had already risen to a high of 7,500 riel (about US$1.8) per kilo by early September from a low of 3,800 riel (about US$0.9 dollars) in early August, he said.

"Farmers are starting to raise pigs again after 90 percent of them had closed their pig farms," he added.

Sam Bona, value chain coordinator at the US Agency for International Development, who advises farmers in several provinces, says farmers in Kompong Speu, Kandal, Prey Veng, and Kompong Cham provinces have begun to open small- or medium-scale pig farms of up to 500 pigs in the wake of the ban.

Other farmers are benefiting as well, such as those who grow corn and cassava for pig feed, he added.