Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Dith Tina used the occasion of Valentine’s Day to encourage people to celebrate Cambodian products.
“If you love your family, you will make sure they eat a healthy diet. Today is a celebration of love, is it not?” he said.
Valentine’s Day, February 14, has been embraced by younger Cambodians, so the minister saw it as an opportunity to reach them with a message about the importance of clean, safe food.
Rather than selling flowers or candy, the agriculture ministry set up booths outside its headquarters and stocked them with fresh produce and a range of Cambodian products.
While visiting the sales booths, Tina said that on the occasion of Valentine’s Day, the ministry thought of farmers, and expressed their love for them by promoting their wares.
“While the Kingdom produces beautiful flowers, the ministry chose to sell chemical-free vegetables, as in most people’s minds, veges are more closely linked to the work of the farming community,” he added.
“Today, we are letting the public know about some of the great fertiliser and chemical-free vegetables that Cambodia produces. Going forward, I want the quality to improve, and to make this feasible, we need to increase demand for safe, high quality produce,” he continued.
A variety of Cambodian products were put up for sale, including fresh vegetables, delicious milled rice and sweet fruit wine. Over 20 items were on display, and all of them were chemical free.
Chay Chim, a teacher and researcher at the Royal University of Agriculture, manned one of the stalls. He said Valentine’s Day was an excellent opportunity to promote the Kingdom’s produce.
“Selling these products connects love with healthy products. We delivered a message to the public that if they love their family members, they should eat safe, healthy food,” he added.
“To express our love for the people of Cambodia, the agriculture university works tirelessly to research the safest, most high quality crops that it can,” he concluded.
