CP Cambodia, a subsidiary of Thai conglomerate Charoen Pokphand Company Limited, is set to open its second animal feed plant next year, according to senior company officials.

The $8 million facility in Pailin province, which will produce about 180,000 tonnes of animal feed per year, is slated to begin operations mid 2015, according to Uthai Tantipimolphan, president of CP Cambodia.

“The construction has already started. It will take around eight months to finish,” Tantipimolphan said.

CP Cambodia already has one animal feed-making factory in Kandal province. The company is also the Kingdom’s largest exporter of live swine, with exports totalling 25,000 heads during the first six months of the year, according to data from the Ministry of Commerce.

Chhil Chhen, deputy director of Pailin’s provincial department of agriculture, said he was not surprised that the firm had chosen to expand to the northwestern province, and that CP’s plans were

win-win for both farmers and the company.

“Pailin is one of the big cassava and red corn producers in Cambodia. CP Cambodia saw the province’s potential to produce cassava and red corn, which is then used as raw materials to produce animal feed,” Chhen said.

“If Pailin cannot supply enough raw materials to the animal feed mill, CP Cambodia can also buy cassava and red corn from farmers in nearby provinces such as Battambang and Bantey Meanchey, who are also big producers of the crops."

Figures from Pailin’s agriculture department show there are close to 23,000 hectares of cassava-growing land and about 4,385 hectares of red corn-growing land in the province. Cassava production in Pailin currently stands at about 25 tonnes per hectare, while red corn production is at 3.5 tonnes per hectare.

Song Sarom, a red corn trader in Pailin province and a supplier to CP Cambodia’s Kandal animal feed plant, praised the arrival of a second facility in his home province.

Sarom was confident that the new facility would be able to consume up to 30 per cent of the province’s total output.

“This is good news for both farmers and traders. We will have an additional market for our products. I hope the company will offer market prices for Pailin farmers and not dump prices during the harvest period,” he said.

The Ministry of Agriculture’s 2013 annual report stated that there were seven animal feed mills operating throughout Cambodia, producing around 1 million tonnes of animal feed per year.

However, despite the impressive output, supply still fails to meet the demand for animal feed in the Kingdom, the report said.