Agriculture
Agricultural commodities, processing and products
Vanishing Mekong? shifting tropical storms threaten a great river delta
Recent changes in the patterns of tropical storms are threatening the future of the Mekong River delta in Vietnam. This is one of the world’s great deltas. It is home to more than 20m people and the rice that is grown on its fertile land ...
Huge challenges still facing Vietnam's economy
It has been five years since the economic restructuring programme was launched, and despite some improvements to the Vietnamese economy, there has been little change in the growth model. For that reason, many have called for a reconsideration of the restructuring methods used over the past ...
Agro SEZ to grow China exports
A Chinese firm plans to invest at least $2 billion into developing the Kingdom’s first special economic zone geared entirely for agro-processing and storage, with the sprawling zone’s factories and warehouses aimed at meeting the growing potential for Cambodia to export its agricultural produce to ...
Export optimism varies according to sector
Despite signs of a recovery in the export sector, Thai manufacturers and exporters have been encouraged to focus more on product development, brand recognition, and adding value to enhance competitiveness in global markets. For the rest of this year, exporters expect exchange-rate fluctuations will still ...
Mother Nature and a hydropower onslaught aren’t the Mekong Delta’s only problems
Early this year, many Mekong Delta farmers fought a losing battle against an epic drought, the worst since 1926. Was the drought a harbinger of climate change? Perhaps it was, but more certainly it was an artifact of El Niño. The same ocean-warming phenomenon that ...
Mongla: ‘the wildlife trafficking capital of the world’
Mongla lies on the border of the Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture in southwestern China and Shan State in northeastern Myanmar. Situated in the heart of the Golden Triangle, the city is known among other sad epithets as the wildlife trafficking capital of the world and for drugs, gambling, ...
China’s Xi Jinping visits King, Hun Sen
Throngs of cheering school children greeted Chinese President Xi Jinping upon his arrival in the capital on October 13, with balaclava-clad soldiers enforcing order and whole sections of the city shut down as he paid visits to the King and the prime minister. On his first ...
Judges and rice: Cambodia's expanding reliance on China
Cambodia is rapidly expanding its diplomatic affair with China. Early last week it appealed to Beijing for help amid plunging rice pricesand then three days later Phnom Penh signed an MoU seeking Chinese assistance in overhauling its much maligned judiciary. The memorandum of understanding allows China ...
Paddy farmers risk losses as prices fall
Paddy prices in the capital are falling on weak demand and the drop risks damaging the market, farmers and traders said. The market price for 100 baskets of stored manaw thukha paddy in Nay Pyi Taw was almost K850,000 in September, but has since fallen to ...
Airbus to marshal its satellites against deforestation
One of the world’s largest aerospace companies is enlisting its satellites in the fight to save forests. That’s the aim of Starling, a new service developed by Airbus Defence and Space, nonprofit The Forest Trust and remote-sensing specialist SarVision. Food giants Nestlé and Ferrero, two of the ...