The Cambodian government held a roundtable discussion on animal feed production with the local industry with the participation of all relevant institutions, including the private sector, reported local news.

The meeting discussed the challenges that livestock and aquaculture farmers are facing and how to make their production more competitive with neighboring countries and enhance the productivity of local animal feed production of sufficient quality and competitiveness to ensure the establishment of farms and feed mills using local raw materials and creating local jobs.

Veng Sakhon, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, said that Cambodia currently imports almost 50% of the animal feed because the local alternative costs more. “We have collected input from the private sector and the Ministry of Industry will discuss more details with producers. We are looking into reducing the high cost of electricity, transportation costs and provide some tax incentives while restricting raw material imports with the purpose of promoting local use in the industry,” he said.

Srun Pov, president of the Cambodia Livestock Raisers Association, said that currently, Cambodia imports more than 30% of animal feed, mostly from Vietnam because local production is challenged by the high cost of production. “Currently there are more than ten animal feed producers in Cambodia and if those companies make use of their capacity, we have no need to import any feed,” Pov said.

Electricity price in Cambodia is more than 50% higher compared with Vietnam and Thailand.