The US government, through the US Agency for International Development (USAID), has rolled out a competition for agricultural partnerships that focuses on major challenges in the Kingdom’s agricultural sector such as cold chains, storage capacity and logistics, according to the US embassy in Phnom Penh.

The private sector lauded the USAID initiative as a targeted tactic to improve efficiency in the Cambodian agricultural value chain, spotlighting vegetables as an example of an export segment that racks up losses every year due to supply-chain inefficiencies.

Launched on February 24, the competition “will make $3.5 million available in grant funding to private companies”, the embassy said in a February 28 press statement.

“It will also require companies to provide a one-to-one funding match and is designed to work with the private sector to respond to the most pressing needs for agricultural cold chain, storage and logistics.

“The competition aims to help Cambodia’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries achieve the strategic priorities of its Agriculture Sector Development Plan 2019-2023 with market-driven solutions,” it added.

Ambassador Patrick Murphy said in the statement that the US “is a long-standing partner to Cambodia and its agriculture sector.

“This competition is designed to challenge local and international companies to come up with innovative solutions to advance Cambodia’s economic competitiveness by expanding market access, improving infrastructure and logistics, and promoting private sector engagement and investment across the agriculture value chain,” he said.

Kan Panharith, production manager at local agribusiness Davane Plc, which specialises in agricultural value chains and markets for food safety, told The Post that his business fully supports the focus of USAID’s move and the “clear targets” on which the competition’s funding awards are directed to.

He noted that the competition’s overall aim is in line with his business’ philosophy. “In fact, it is one of the four pillars of our grand plan – to develop a market system for local agricultural products.”

According to him, Davane has made significant headway in bringing safe high-quality products to the market and is working out a holistic model from production to post-harvest as well as a distribution and market system for local wares.

“We believe this funding support is spot on in its focus and comes at the right time. We trust that the scheme will be a significant contributor to development of the agricultural sector that helps build a foundation for a sustainable market system,” Panharith said.

Yourng Pakk, CEO of AgriBee (Cambodia) Plc, a value chain management platform that serves stakeholders in the agricultural sector, told The Post that the funding will do its part in improving the country’s agricultural value chain.

“USAID’s initiative is a brilliant one . . . their matched funding arrangements with the private sector aim to ramp up the agricultural sector,” he said, adding that the programme will focus on vegetables, which account for hundreds of millions of dollars in Cambodian imports every year.

“The agricultural sector requires storage and cooling facilities, and the funds will help set up more . . . in six vegetable-growing provinces,” Pakk said.

The embassy said the competition will close on April 16 and invited interested parties to visit mspgrants.com/cambodia/ to learn more.

The total area for vegetable cultivation in the Kingdom reached 57,208ha at the end of 2019, which yielded 681,099 tonnes that year, according to Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Veng Sakhon.

Last year, vegetable production climbed to 716,113 tonnes, which Sakhon said was equivalent to 68 per cent of total domestic demand.

However, he pointed out that the Kingdom still needed to import 329,612 tonnes of vegetables.