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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.
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