Cashews for the Community

How One Woman Entrepreneur Is Bringing New Opportunities to Her Community

In Laihuot, of Trapeang Arak village in Kampong Thom province, first began working as a cashew collector five years ago. She entered a sector characterized by a lack of coordination among market actors and a heavy dependence on Vietnamese traders: with limited value-added infrastructure at home, Cambodia exports most of its cashews to Vietnam for processing.

Laihuot, 40, who is also a cashew and rice farmer, saw these challenges as an opportunity – not only for herself, but for others in her community as well. Thus, after initially working through a farmers’ association and community processing center in her village, Laihuot decided to start her own business as a collector and processor.

At first, she says, a key challenge was working with farmers to ensure a supply of cashews of consistent quality and quantity, as well as managing her business and navigating the market. Furthermore, a lack of working capital limited her purchasing capacity during the harvesting season.

Ms. Laihuot has worked with Harvest II to expand her network of suppliers and support farmers in her community to improve their harvests, strengthening her own business in the process.

©Feed the Future Cambodia Harvest II/Benjamin Rost, 2019

Then, at the outset of the cashew season last year, Laihuot attended a short training hosted by Feed the Future Cambodia Harvest II on cashew pest and disease management. After applying the techniques that she learned at the training, Laihuot saw improvements in her harvest, and recognized an opportunity to support her fellow farmers and to strengthen her business at the same time.

Laihuot worked with Harvest II to grow her network of suppliers, expanding from a single village to three districts, and to improve her supply chain management. She began collecting information from her producers related to their production capacity and expected yield, and now pays premium prices for premium product in order to encourage farmers to improve their harvests and post-harvest handling.

“In previous years, farmers would always bring product with some unripe cashews, some overripe, some still attached to the fruit, some covered in dirt,” Laihuot says. “But this year, they wash and clean their cashews, and if I cannot go collect them right away, they have started drying them, too.”

Laihuot is also helping her producers to improve their yields. After joining a business-to-business workshop organized by Harvest II last year, Laihuot connected with VT Grow Co., a specialized input supply company, and joined a technical training in her district on the proper application of inputs for pest and disease management. She subsequently shared what she learned with her farmers to help build their capacity – and her business as well.

Providing sustainable employment opportunities to women in her community is a central element of Ms. Laihuot’s mission as a business owner. Seventy percent of her staff are women.

©Feed the Future Cambodia Harvest II/Benjamin Rost, 2019

As a result of her efforts and improved collaboration with her farmers, Laihuot was able to collect a total of 57 tons of cashew last year. This season, after securing a loan with help from Harvest II to increase her access to working capital, she is on track to buy and sell twice as much and has plans to build a storage facility to stockpile cashews for year-round processing.

But it’s not just for her own benefit that she works so hard. Her processing business is oriented towards providing employment to others in her community – especially women, who make up 70 percent of her staff, and who, Laihuot says, are uniquely impacted by limited employment opportunities in their communities. “I run this business through an aspiration to help the community – I don’t want to profit just only for myself; I want farmers to profit just as I do,” Laihuot says.

By partnering with entrepreneurs like Laihuot, Harvest II is helping Cambodians capture value-added opportunities for local horticultural products as well as bring new jobs to rural areas.

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Bringing Local Produce to Modern Retail

A Vegetable Wholesaler in Siem Reap Expands into New Markets

Two decades ago, when he was still a young boy, Rim Krai used to travel with his father to sell vegetables in Siem Reap town. Now a vegetable wholesaler in Prasat Bakong district, Siem Reap province, Krai recalls how they would load up their ox cart with cabbages, making the fifteen-kilometer journey along a rough dirt road to the market – and that they would always sell out.

These days, things have changed for vegetable wholesalers like Krai. Cambodian-grown vegetables must compete with imports from neighboring countries, while supply networks are often inconsistent in terms of quality, quantity, and timing, as farmers lack technical expertise and access to market information.

Thus, when Krai heard that Makro, an international supermarket chain, was opening a store in Siem Reap, he recognized an opportunity to improve his business – and support his producers in the process. As one of the first modern retail outlets in Siem Reap, a town with vibrant tourism and hospitality industries, Makro could help provide Krai with a stable market for his vegetables, and bring Cambodian produce to a modern retail outlet. Meeting Makro’s quality standards, however, would take work.

With support from Harvest II, Rim Krai has expanded his network of suppliers, and now purchases between 500 and 1,000 kilograms of vegetables a day – a tenfold increase on previous years.

©Feed the Future Cambodia Harvest II/Benjamin Rost, 2019

Since January 2018, Krai has been working with Feed the Future Cambodia Harvest II to improve his wholesale business. Harvest II connected Krai to more suppliers in his area, helping him expand his daily collection volume and improve his supply chain management.

“Before working with Harvest II,” Krai says, “there weren’t many vegetables to buy. I bought from only two or three households, and producers lacked technical knowledge and post-harvest handling skills.”

After working with Harvest II, he expanded his daily collection volume from between 50 and 150 kilograms to between 500 and 1,000 kilograms, and supported his producers to improve their post-harvest handling techniques.

“Now, they throw out the rotten vegetables,” he says, “and prepare them in ten-kilogram bags. They sort the vegetables by grade as well.”

Confident in his producers’ ability to meet Makro’s demand, Krai was eager to work with the supermarket as a supplier of local vegetables. With facilitation support from Harvest II, he traveled to Phnom Penh to meet with Makro managers and negotiate a contract, and began selling to them in January 2019.

Since then, his income has increased, as Makro provides a reliable supplement to Krai’s wholesale business at Samaki market in Siem Reap. Krai now employs six staff: three to run the wholesale stand at Samaki market and three to organize and package produce according to Makro’s standards.

Krai has supported his producers to improve their post-harvest handling, such as by grading, sorting, and packaging their vegetables after harvesting.

©Feed the Future Cambodia Harvest II/Benjamin Rost, 2019

“I am glad to work with Makro,” Krai says, “as not many buyers like myself are able to enter into this kind of business. Makro orders vegetables every day, and I am glad to have a daily income.”

To prepare for future expansion of his business with Makro, Krai has worked with Harvest II to support his producers to continue improving their production methods, and to begin growing vegetables year-round to ensure a more stable supply network throughout the year. As his business continues to grow, Krai looks forward to the benefits that it will bring: more jobs in his community, more stability and support for farmers, and more customers able to enjoy Cambodian-grown vegetables.