Cambodian agriculture tycoon and CPP Senator Mong Reththy launched his company’s second palm oil processing plant in Sihanoukville province yesterday, to keep up with increasing yields of palm oil.

The $20 million processing plant is located in the Prey Top district of Sihanoukville and is a joint venture between Mong Reththy Investment Cambodia Oil Palm and Thailand-based TCC Group.

Reththy, chairman of Mong Reththy Group, said during the launch of the plant that with increasing yields, the first plant, which was launched in 2002, can process only 30 tonnes of crude palm oil per hour, which was insufficient to match the current capacity needs.

“Due to the growth of fresh palm oil day by day, it was required to build this second plant that can process 45 tonnes per hour, with an investment capital of about $20 million,” he said.

However, Reththy said that the price of palm oil in the global market has been dropping from $1,200 per tonne of crude palm oil in 2012 to just $600 per tonne earlier this year.

“Now, the company also plans to build a cooking oil processing plant to supply domestically and for export too,” Reththy said.

As of February, Reththy’s company had 16,000 hectares of palm oil trees, 8,000 of which were ready for harvesting, with plans to extend the farm to 30,000 in the future.

Last year, the company exported 22,000 tonnes of crude palm oil, up from 19,000 tonnes in 2013. But price falls had significantly cut into the firms revenue.