AGRO-Industrial conglomerate Mong Reththy Group inaugurated its first feed mill on Friday, with the factory’s production line aimed foremost at supplying the group’s industrial pig-rearing operation, a company executive said yesterday.

Monivann Tan, vice president of Mong Reththy Group (MRG), said the feed plant would initially supply the 100,000 pigs raised at M’s Pig ACMC Cambodia, a joint venture between MRG and Britain-based ACMC Ltd. Any additional production would be distributed in the domestic market.

“Our production line is producing for our pig farm first,” he said. “The bulk of the product will go here and the rest is for supplying the domestic market.”

He said the factory line could eventually be retooled to supply feed for MRG’s $2 million fish farming operation.

Tan said the $10 million factory, built on 10 hectares in Prey Nop district in Preah Sihanouk province, had the capacity to produce 20 tonnes of animal feed an hour, or about 60,000 tonnes per year. The feed is produced from locally-grown corn and paddy rice.

According to officials at the Ministry of Agriculture, Cambodia currently has eight animal feed mills in operation, the largest of which is Thai-owned CP Cambodia. The factories supply over 1 million tonnes of feed per year to the domestic market, covering about 80 percent of its demand.

In a posting on his Facebook page, MRG president and CEO Mong Reththy said the operation of his company’s new feed mill will create a demand for 100,000 tonnes of agricultural inputs a year, including corn, rice, beans and cassava.

“So farmers who are facing a shortage of markets will have a huge market for their produce,” he said.

The factory’s operation will create 200 jobs as well as 40,000 indirect jobs, reducing the pressure of Cambodians to emigrate in search of work, he said.