Sainsbury's says sales 'solid' in tough market

Sainsbury's has seen modest sales growth

Supermarket group Sainsbury's has reported "solid" sales growth for the past three months in what it describes as a "tough consumer environment".

Like-for-like sales - which ignore the effect of new stores - excluding fuel rose 1.9% in the 12 weeks to 11 June.
The retailer said it had benefited from Easter shopping, good spring weather and the royal wedding.
But it said higher fuel costs were reducing the amount of money people have available to spend.
The company's budget range - Basics - is its fastest growing brand.
Sainsbury's also saw strong growth in its smaller convenience store business, which grew by 20%.
"We've delivered a solid sales performance, in line with our expectations, in spite of the continued tough consumer environment," said Sainsbury's chief executive Justin King.
Sainsbury's first quarter sales figures in its trading update included VAT. On Tuesday, comparable figures from Tesco showed a 1% rise in UK sales for the 13 weeks to 28 May.
Excluding VAT, Tesco's UK sales were down 0.1%. Sainsbury's told the BBC that when VAT was excluded its sales were up 0.9%.
Upbeat mood Sainsbury's said that sales of clothing and non-food items grew faster than food.
It said that trading conditions remained "very competitive, reflecting the challenging economic backdrop".
"We expect this to be the case throughout the year," it added.
Richard Hunter, head of UK equities at Hargreaves Lansdown Stockbrokers, said: "The update has narrowly missed estimates, but the company itself was noticeably upbeat about the latest performance.
"In particular, management was at pains to point out that its non-food offerings grew faster than food and, indeed, ahead of the Tesco number yesterday - albeit that Sainsbury is coming from a lower base."

Alibaba splits Taobao, China's biggest retail website

As China's internet penetration increases, Taobao's popularity and reach is expected to grow further

Chinese internet giant Alibaba has announced that it is reorganizing one of its websites, Taobao, into three separate units.

Taobao operates China's biggest online shopping site, hosting 30,000 online stores.
About 53,00 items are sold on the Taobao website every minute.
Alibaba said it is splitting the website into Taobao Marketplace, Taobao Mall and and eTao which will focus on different types of business.
The restructuring will see Taobao Marketplace concentrate on consumer-to-consumer business, while Taobao Mall will specialise in business-to-consumer transactions.
The company said eTao will be a product search engine designed to make it easier for consumers to find goods and services offered by all e-retailers.
"We believe this move will benefit our customers, as each of the three companies will be able to focus on its own unique consumer experience," the company said in a statement.
IPO speculation The tremendous success of Taobao has fuelled speculation in recent times about a potential listing of the company.
However, Alibaba said that the decision to split the company was a clear indication that it was not planning any such move.
"The decision to split Taobao into three companies makes abundantly clear what we have been saying for years, there is no Taobao IPO [initial public offering]," said Alibaba spokesman John Spelich.

Samsonite shares fall 10% on Hong Kong trading debut

 

Samsonite, founded in Denver, Colorado, in 1910, is the latest upmarket company to list in Hong Kong

Samsonite shares have tumbled on their debut at the Hong Hong stock exchange on investor concern about the strength of the global economic recovery.

Its shares fell by as much as 10% in early morning trade to HK$12.96 from an offer price of HK$14.50
The upmarket luggage firm had raised $1.25bn (£771m) via an initial public offering (IPO).
Samsonite is the latest big brand to list in Hong Kong in order to tap into the lucrative Chinese market.
The Italian fashion house Prada is due to price its IPO on Friday and make its trading debut on June 24.
Tough times However, recent IPOs have struggled.
Samsonite's fall comes even thought it priced its flotation at the lower end of a proposed range.
Earlier this month Australian mining company Resourcehouse dropped its Hong Kong IPO plans because of a poor response from investors.
Meanwhile, companies including MGM China and commodities trader Glencore have also had muted debuts on the stock exchange.
Analysts said that investor's appetite has been blunted.
"Of course you have to attribute that to the weak sentiment in the market and in the meantime people won't be too interested in IPOs," said Alex Wong of Ample Finance Group.
Debt payment Despite the poor debut, the money raised by the flotation will allow Samsonite's owners - private equity group CVC and Royal Bank of Scotland - to pay off debt.
CVC bought Samsonite in 2007 for $1.7bn at the height of the credit boom.
But the company struggled when travel was hit by the financial crisis and Royal Bank of Scotland ended up taking a 30% stake as part of a debt restructuring.
The company is betting on growth in Asia, where leisure travel is becoming increasingly affordable.
Samsonite was founded by US trunk maker Jesse Shwayder in Denver, Colorado, in 1910.
One of his first cases was called Samson, after the biblical figure known for his strength, and was designed to withstand the hardships of travelling through America's West.

U.S. wants China's help in stopping counterfeit electronic parts

U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI), left, and ranking member Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) speak to the media during a news conference June 14.

Washington (CNN) -- For months, the U.S. has said it's aware that counterfeit electronic parts, usually from China, posed a serious and growing problem for the U.S. military. Now the Senate Armed Services Committee is investigating the counterfeit parts problem and wants China's help, two leading senators said Tuesday.
The committee has staffers in Hong Kong trying to get into Shenzen, in Guangdong province China, where the committee believes most of the counterfeiting allegedly occurred. But the Chinese are refusing to grant the Americans visas to visit Guangdong, the senators said.
Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the top Republican on the committee, said China should want to help with the investigation. "It should be in Chinese interest not to have counterfeiting of these electronic parts going on because it would harm legitimate Chinese companies as well," McCain said at a Capitol Hill news conference Tuesday.
But even if the Chinese grant the visas, they don't want to make the investigation easy, the senators said. "The Chinese have said, 'Well, even if this could be arranged, there would have to be a Chinese official present during the interviews.' That is a nonstarter," Sen. Carl Levin. D-Michigan, said. "We do not have somebody looking at our staff while they're interviewing people who are relevant to an investigation."
Levin, the committee chairman, said these counterfeit parts are making it into some of America's most crucial weapons systems, "including counterfeit microprocessors that were purchased by the Air Force for use on the F-15 operational flight control computers." Counterfeit microcircuits have been found on Missile Defense Agency hardware, he said.
The 2010 study by the Commerce Department found the problem of counterfeit parts touched nearly 40% of the Pentagon's parts supply chain, and was getting worse, "rising from 3,868 incidents in 2005 to 9,356 incidents in 2008," the study said.
The study also found that part of the problem is the way the government buys parts. "The rise of counterfeit parts in the supply chain is exacerbated by demonstrated weaknesses in inventory management, procurement procedures, record keeping, reporting practices, inspection and testing protocols, and communication within and across all industry and government organizations," the report said.

One example of the problem parts mentioned in the Commerce study was microcircuits. Over the span of the four years studied, the most common abuse was selling used microcircuits that were relabeled as higher-grade products.

IMF warns Russia of reform or recession

File photo of Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, who himself has grown critical of Russia's economic performance.

(FT) -- Russia has dashed hopes that the 2008-2009 economic crisis would spur needed economic reforms aimed at modernising the economy, a mission from the International Monetary Fund has concluded.
Current policies "are not ambitious enough and not focused enough", said Juha Kähkönen, head of the IMF mission that spent the past two weeks in Moscow meeting senior officials. The mission warned that failure to reform Russia's oil export-driven economy would leave the country vulnerable to another recession triggered by a drop in oil prices.
The comments come as Dmitry Medvedev, president, has himself grown increasingly critical of Russia's economic performance, announcing a series of 10 key reforms in March, and describing Russia's investment climate as "very bad".
The fund has counselled Russian officials on the need to reduce the non-oil budget deficit from its current level of 11 per cent of gross domestic product to 4.7 per cent and increase interest rates to head off rising inflation.
The collapse of Russia's economy in 2008-2009, when GDP fell nearly 8 per cent, laid bare the shortcoming of an economy that remains heavily skewed towards consumption and has very low investment rates.
Many economists have warned that Russia faces stagnation unless it rationalises a budget process that is politically beholden to special interests and focused on social spending.
Alexei Kudrin, finance minister, said last year that tax breaks given to Russian companies alone were equivalent to 5 per cent of GDP. "We could cure our budget deficit without increasing rates just by getting rid of tax breaks," he said at the time.
But rather than tackling politically tricky cuts, the government under prime minister Vladimir Putin introduced a payroll tax on businesses. The move has been widely criticised for driving small and medium-sized enterprises back into the shadow economy. Mr Kähkönen called the payroll tax "bad for growth".
Most Russian economists say the central economic problem is fighting inflation, which is predicted to be 8 per cent this year, well outside the government target of 6-7 per cent.
The government has missed its inflation target in 10 of the past 11 years, said Sergei Guriev, rector of the Moscow-based New Economic School. "The most important problem with inflation is that missing the inflation target undermines the government's credibility. It is time to show that the government is capable of sticking to its own promises," he said.
He welcomed Mr Medvedev's proposals aimed at improving the investment climate, such as appointing independent directors to the boards of state companies, but said "they have to be implemented to have any effect"

Public Complain about High Goods Prices

Ministry to Rein Goods Prices in Flood-hit South

Cambodia's riel survives alongside the dollar

By Guy De Launey BBC News, Phnom Penh

In Cambodia, money talks as loudly as it does anywhere else in the world - but at least it never burns a hole in your pocket.

That's because there aren't any coins. You can't talk about coppers or nickels in Cambodian riel. The national bank gave up striking anything metallic more than a decade ago.

People use the Cambodian currency for anything less than a dollar

Instead there's a lot of paper. Right down to the seldom-seen 50 riel note. That's worth all of a cent and a quarter - and it's regarded with about as much affection as the pitifully lightweight one yen coin in Japan.
So wallets, billfolds and purses bulge with dozens of notes - ranging from the crisply-minted to the well-used and filthy. But to many people, the riel is simply small change.
Almost all significant transactions are priced - and paid for - in US dollars. For the visitor it starts with the visa fee on arrival at the airport. But it continues everywhere else in the country.
ATMs pay out in dollars - and all but a tiny percentage of bank deposits are in the US currency.
As for lending, most financial institutions won't even consider doling out anything other than Benjamin Franklin and his presidential friends.
Bombing the bank
International travellers are used to hotels and airlines setting their prices in dollars to get round local currency fluctuations.
But here the shops, tradespeople and even the motorbike taxi drivers accept the folding green. And young people entering the increasing white-collar workforce expect their salary to be quoted in dollars.

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But there are no quarters, dimes or any other American coins in use here. So people use the Cambodian currency for anything less than a dollar.

Everyone knows the exchange rate - 4,000 to the dollar - give or take the odd hundred riel.
It's been that way since at least the start of the century - so people are actually fairly relaxed about taking payments in either currency.
A $5 bill or a 20,000 riel note - it's all the same to most Cambodians. Although the money exchanges at the markets do a brisk trade with people hoping to turn a profit from minor fluctuations in the rates.
It's a system that seems to keep everyone happy. And when you look at the history, it's easy to understand why.
Cambodia didn't have a currency of any kind in the late 1970s - when the ultra-Maoist Khmer Rouge banned money, and blew up the national bank.
When the riel was reintroduced in the 1980s, the new, Vietnamese-backed government initially had to give it away - such was the lack of public confidence.
The revived currency plunged when United Nations forces ran Cambodia in the early 90s - bringing oodles of dollars with them. Eventually the riel settled into its peg of 4,000 to the dollar - and a clear role as second fiddle.
Dollarisation?

Familiar fudge: Share prices will be quoted in riels, trades may be settled in dollars

But recently there have been agitations for that to change. And they've been taking the long-delayed launch of the Cambodian Stock Exchange as a cue.
The Wall Street Journal published an editorial last month, making the case for Cambodia to use the Exchange as an opportunity to embrace full dollarisation. It would, said the paper, attract more foreign investors - who wouldn't need to worry about currency fluctuations hitting their profits, the way they have in neighbouring Vietnam.
But there's a powerful pro-riel lobby in the government and the National Bank. And they see the Exchange as, perhaps, the final opportunity for the riel to make it as an independent currency.
The solution is a fudge with a familiar ring to it. When the Exchange opens, possibly in a few months' time, share prices will be quoted in riel. But trades may also be settled in dollars - at least for the first three years of the Exchange's operation.
It could all be enormously confusing - or as simple as paying in one currency and getting your change in another. And it's not as if Cambodia is short of practice in that.

On financial regulation, it's Warren vs. Dimon

By Kevin Drawbaugh Kevin Drawbaugh – Sun Mar 27, 1:53 pm ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Elizabeth Warren, the Obama administration's defender of financial consumers, will venture into the corporate lion's den this week, along with Jamie Dimon, CEO of banking giant JPMorgan Chase & Co.
The two will be speakers at an event set for Wednesday at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the country's largest business lobbying group, in its Corinthian-columned headquarters situated within view of the White House.
Warren, 61, is an earnest Harvard Law School professor brought up in Oklahoma, while Dimon, 55, is a consummate New York City insider and one of Wall Street's richest CEOs.
He was once a close adviser to President Barack Obama on financial regulation policy, but has become a vocal critic of the administration's efforts, especially since passage in 2010 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reforms.
She is helping the administration set up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), a watchdog called for by Dodd-Frank to shield consumers from abusive practices in the mortgage and credit card businesses.
The remarks by Warren and Dimon will generate headlines, although analysts said other financial regulation news this week will have more impact on banks and the markets.
"The big event next week in Washington is the long-anticipated release of the rules implementing the Dodd-Frank risk retention requirement," said Brian Gardner, a senior policy analyst at investment firm Keefe Bruyette & Woods.
Under Dodd-Frank, mortgage lenders that sell loans as securities -- a practice known as securitization -- must keep at least 5 percent of the credit risk on their books.
The measure, requiring lenders to have "skin in the game", is meant to help restore lending discipline that went out the window during the securitization-fueled real estate boom at the root of the 2007-2009 financial crisis.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp will hold a meeting on Tuesday to consider a risk-retention rule proposal, as well as a related measure to allow some exemptions.
LIVING WILLS
The FDIC will also consider a proposal on living wills for large banks and financial firms, another Dodd-Frank measure. Such wills are meant to tell regulators how to shut down an institution on the brink of collapse in an orderly way, averting the need for bailouts or bankruptcies.
Less than three years after taxpayers rescued Wall Street and the big banks from their worst crisis since the Great Depression, bank executives, the chamber and many Republicans in Congress are on the attack against Dodd-Frank.
Another committee hearing on Wednesday in the House of Representatives will give Republicans a platform to question Dodd-Frank and the costs of complying with it. The reforms were pushed through Congress last year by Democrats over the opposition of Republicans and bank lobbyists.
The same lobbyists are now trying to weaken Dodd-Frank at the agency implementation level, while Republicans seek to cut the budgets of agencies putting the reforms into practice, and offer bills to repeal or amend parts of it.
In another area, House Republicans were expected to advance plans in a hearing on Thursday to overhaul mortgage titans Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, although final action on this is not expected for many more months.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission's efforts to impose regulation for the first time on the $600 trillion swaps market will come under scrutiny at another hearing on Thursday before the House Agriculture Committee.
The CFTC's deadline for accepting comments from the public on curbing commodity market speculation will arrive on Monday, along with a flood of industry comments.
(Additional reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York, Joe Rauch in Charlotte, N.C. and Dave Clarke in Washington; Editing by Dale Hudson)

Jobs, the lagging indicator once more?

By Emily Kaiser Emily Kaiser – Sun Mar 27, 3:01 pm ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. labor market is finally improving, just when many of the other economic indicators are wavering.
Jobs are considered a lagging indicator. They typically recover many months after the economy comes out of a recession, and this cycle was no exception. So will troubles in Japan, Libya and elsewhere push up U.S. unemployment later this year?
"The U.S. economy is headed for another soft patch brought on by the double shock," said IHS Global Insight chief economist Nariman Behravesh, referring to Japan and upheaval in the oil-producing Arab world.
Assuming oil prices stabilize and Japan's reconstruction and recovery begin in the next few months -- as most economists currently expect -- Behravesh says the soft patch will likely be short-lived. If he's right, the impact on the labor market should be minimal.
Friday brings the March employment report, and economists polled by Reuters are looking for growth of about 188,000 jobs, with the unemployment rate holding steady at 8.9 percent.
This employment report carries a bit more uncertainty than usual because it arrives before some of the early indicators economists rely on to fine-tune their forecasts.
Normally, the jobs report is released after the monthly Institute for Supply Management readings on manufacturing and services, both of which contain employment measures.
Not so this time.
The ISM manufacturing survey comes out on Friday, about 90 minutes after the jobs data, and the services report won't be released until the following week.
That leaves Thursday's weekly jobless claims report as the best guide, and the trend there has been "heartening," said Deutsche Bank economist Brett Ryan.
He said payrolls historically have not turned significantly higher until weekly jobless claims broke below the 400,000 barrier. The four-week moving average, which smooths out weekly volatility, has been below that threshold in four of the past five weeks.
That makes him a bit more optimistic than most about Friday's employment figures. He thinks they will show a gain of 200,000 jobs, with the unemployment rate dipping to 8.8 percent
JOBS TRUMP OIL?
Even with the benefit of all the early clues, economists have not had much success in predicting the jobless rate in recent months. It has fallen by more than expected in each of the prior three months, coming down nearly a full percentage point since November. Indeed, the labor market has been among the few positive surprises lately.
Paul Ashworth, an economist with Capital Economics in Toronto, said the U.S. economy "appeared to have everything going for it headed into the new year" before the run-up in food and energy prices and the Japanese earthquake.
"Ironically, the labor market is the only part of the economy still showing any unequivocal signs of improvement," Ashworth said.
Many economists have downgraded growth prospects for the first quarter, partly because of rising oil prices that threaten to curtail consumer spending.
Between the Middle East and North Africa unrest, Japan's disaster and Portugal's deepening debt troubles, global trouble zones have multiplied.
Most of them have a connection to oil.
Friday's ISM reports will offer more insight into how the global economy is coping so far. Even before Japan's earthquake and tsunami, rising food and energy prices were driving up business costs, and that pattern is likely to persist.
The European Central Bank has warned that it is keeping a close eye on inflation pressures and would not hesitate to raise interest rates.
For most central bankers, what matters most is how consumers react to those rising prices, so Wednesday's reading on euro zone consumer inflation expectations bears watching. A similar gauge of U.S. consumer expectations indicated they were edging up modestly in March.
U.S. consumer confidence measures clearly show rising gasoline prices have darkened shoppers' moods. But that has not yet translated into a perceptible drop in spending.
That could be because of the improving jobs picture. When people feel confident that paychecks will keep coming in regularly, paying a bit more at the gasoline pumps isn't quite so unsettling. When customers keep coming through the door, employers are more inclined to hire.
It's a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem, but as long as spending holds up, the labor market should too.
(Editing by Dan Grebler)

Admin outta the city

The mesmerising entrance to Administrative City. Photo by: PETER OLSZEWSK
Myanmar might have its mysterious new government capital, Naypidaw,  which sprang from nothingness about 400 kilometres north of Yangon in 2005, but now Siem Reap has its brand spanking new Administrative City, which has miraculously mushroomed from the flat plains about 20 kilometres out of town on the road to Phnom Penh.

But whereas Myanmar’s vast army of government officials and civil servants had to be ordered to move to Naypidaw, the movement of Siem Reap’s bureaucracies and servants of the people has been more orderly with only a few grumbles about the relatively short commuting distance involved.

In November of 2005, the Myanmar government simply gave recalcitrant civil servants their marching orders, instructing on a Friday that  hundreds of them were ordered to move to homes and offices in the new city, and to be there by the following Monday.

Business people returning to Siem Reap in the past few months were also perplexed to find that many downtown government departments were abandoned or already razed, especially in prime riverside locales.
Gone too were the workers, some of whom have been doing the daily commute to the edge of town since the Administrative City opened for business in January.

Liv San, a radio reporter for 25 years who represents several radio networks, including the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), has been working at the Department of Information’s new headquarters in Administrative City for almost three months, and apart from a casual grumble about the distance he has to now commute, he says he’s happy.

“Work is work,” he says, and it really only takes him just over 20 minutes by moto to travel the 19 kilometres from his home to his office.

Last Thursday Liv San was doubly busy as the Department of Information played host to Cambodian and Vietnamese dignitaries.

A convoy of black government vehicles sped through the empty streets of the city and parked outside the Department of Information. Hundreds of schoolkids arrived on pushbikes and dozens of influential Khmers arrived by the car load for the inauguration of the Nokor Phnom National Radio station. One of eight national radio stations in Cambodia, Nokor Phnom will broadcast in Khmer, French, English and Vietnamese.

Among the dignitaries that attended the inauguration were Information Minister Khieu Kanharith and a delegation from the Radio Voice of Vietnam (VOV) led by its general director Mr Vu Van Hien. He handed over equipment and a radio transmitter to National Radio Kampuchea.

A huge sign above the highway to Phnom Penh directs traffic to the 4.2-kilometre new road that leads to the new city, which has a carefully planned layout.

Neat serried rows of dinky little modern buildings are occupied by 25 major provincial government departments. The most imposing building in the city is the Siem Reap Provincial Hall, already a busy hub of activity.

The planning and design of the buildings was supervised by Mam Sophana, the Under-Secretary of State Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction.

The city will eventually be occupied by more than 1000 government employees, with housing tracts planned nearby for families. But at the moment it’s a treeless barren tract, devoid of any personality and underpopulated to the degree that some areas have the air of a ghost town.

This will change, assures Cheuk Kimjon, director of the Administrative Directorate, Provincial Hall.

He told 7Days that because construction of some department buildings is not finished, amenities such as restaurants and food halls have not yet appeared. But construction will start soon on a large restaurant at Provincial Hall, and other departments will also introduce amenities.

The new city harbours only a few straggly trees, but this too will change shortly, assures Provincial Governor Sou Phirin.

'Angkor' electric vehicle to hit road

DOMESTICALLY-produced electric cars may be brought to market early next year thanks to a new factory.

Cambodia’s Heng Development Co has signed an agreement with Hong Kong-based Chau Leong to build an eco-friendly vehicle called the “Angkor.”

The vehicle was developed by local inventor Nhean Phaloek – who once reportedly claimed that the doors to one of his prototype vehicles opened telepathically.

Nhean Phaloek said that construction on the plant started  on March 14 on 20 hectares in the Kandal Stoeng district of Kandal province.

Sien Chanheng, director general for Heng Development, said plant will aim to make between 500 and 1,000 cars a year, with the first appearing soon after the beginning of next year.

She also said the US$20 million deal will be split 80 percent/20 percent between her company and Nhean Phaloek, and Chau Leong, respectively. Nhean Phaloek will import machines and spare parts from China, as well as other technology from Germany, to make the Angkor.

Women look at a domestically-produced electric car at NagaWorld in Phnom Penh yesterday. Photo by: Sovan Philong

He said the goal is to start with two- and four-chair cars sold for $5,000 and then move on to six- and 12-chaired vehicles.

He also expects high demand from visitors to the Kingdom.

“My guess is that 20 cars can be sold in one day because foreign tourists are already booked to buy,” he said.

Nhean Phaloek plans to expand to overseas markets as well, he said.

Ith Praing, secretary of state at the Ministry of Mines, Industry and Energy, who attended the signing ceremony yesterday morning at NagaWorld Phnom Penh, praised the car for its small carbon footprint.

Khmer Products Made in Cambodia

Cambodia Organic Rice

by Piseth

What is organic rice? organic rice is the kind of rice that Cambodian people grow without using chemicals and it does not affect human being's health. Neighboring countries always use pesticide to kill insects and chemicals into their rice fields in order to make rice grow fast and have a great deal of products.

By the way, most of Cambodian farmers has turning into using chemicals and have started using natural fertilizers such as compost because it helps keep soil good from year to year. In addition, farmers also make compost by themselves.

Cambodian people are depending on agriculture, three-quarters of 14 million population, in a country where the average daily income is less than US$2 making cost-efficient and healthier, organic farming attractive.

According to Centre d'Etude et de Developpement Agricole Cambogien (CEDAC), rice yields per hectare for farmers who have gone organic have almost doubled and seed requirements have fallen by 70 to 80 percent. This means an income rise per hectare to $172 from $58, as organic rice is sold at a premium.

Organic farming is not just restricted to rice paddies. The farmers are encouraged to channel rain water for irrigation, creating more ponds and canals which can be used to breed fish. As Cambodia slowly leaves its war-scarred past behind and people, especially in the cities, have more cash to spare, interest is growing in healthier living, giving a further boost to organic farming. The government is also hoping the country will eventually secure a footing in the health-conscious international market for organic food.

Cambodian Silk Products

by Piseth

Cambodian farmer joined in exhibiting Cambodian silk products at Khmer product expo in Phnom Pneh. Cambodia’s tradition of silk dates back to Angkor times. Today, the revival of the weaving and sericulture of Khmer “golden” silk produces a unique modern style that merges the best of hand-made traditions with the newest designs to produce luxury silks.

Cambodian silk products are prized by silk collectors. Most of Cambodian silk available in Cambodia is hand-loomed using the traditional ikat method of dying the threads and looming in the patterns.

Both raw and fine silks are available in the form of bolts, sarongs, clothing and various handicrafts. Cambodian silk is available at the Russian Market and silk shops and boutiques across town, many specializing in silk creations such as tailored Asian and Euro-Asian fashions, fashion accessories and soft furnishings.

Rice liquor made in Cambodia

by Piseth

That is the kind of Khmer products, so you can taste rice liquor made from Takeo province in Cambodia.

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Future of exports seems not so dim

HE International Monetary Fund’s concerns over Cambodia’s persistently narrow export base are well founded, but thankfully the signs for primary markets the United States and Europe look better than probable for the New Year despite slow economic recoveries among these countries.

Noting that garment exports to the US and Europe account for 40 percent of the Kingdom’s total exports, the IMF warned of downside risks in the long-term on the back of a frail world economy. But all signs point to steady demand from these primary markets in early 2011 for Cambodia’s garment sector suggesting that revenues, at least, should continue rising.

From January 1, Cambodia will delight in zero tariffs on nearly all garment exports to the European Union following new legislation that reduces the onus on the exporting people to add value. The Garment Manufacturers Association of Cambodia has said the Kingdom will benefit hugely from this rule change given Cambodia’s reliance on imported raw materials, which below the existing rules meant zero-tariff status often did not apply.

That means in any case of the fiscal problems in Greece, Ireland, Spain and Portugal demand for Cambodian garments is probable to rise in these troubled economies as they will cost less and can better compete with other countries that already delight in tax breaks.

Meanwhile, although the US has struggled to reduce unemployment, recent data suggests the all-vital holiday shopping season this year will be better than probable despite the all-function economic malaise which in turn should add momentum going into next year.

The US National Retail Federation has forecast the holiday sales gain for November and December will be the largest since 2006, while November results for major clothing brands and retailers that import from Cambodia were generally solid.

Clothing brands including Abercrombie & Fitch as well as retailers such as Butt, JC Penney Co and Macy’s – all of which import from Cambodia – posted better-than-probable retail figures last month in the US. In theory, this should deplete inventories and in turn make demand for Cambodian garments going into next year.

Though, GMAC Secretary All-function Ken Loo said yesterday that this did not necessarily translate into a complete recovery for the sector or rising profits for garment factories in Cambodia given that this year’s recovery had not yet overtaken last year’s decline, while costs such as fabric were up 60 percent since January. Cotton costs had risen even quicker, he added.

While the rebound in orders at the start of the year was misleading in its scope in that it represented the start of the turnaround in Cambodia’s garment sector, and orders may slow down, the outlook in terms of demand remains honestly robust given opportunities in the US and Europe. So even if market diversification does continue to be a challenge, the critical factor determining the fortunes of Cambodia’s main export industry next year remains costs such as cotton, fabric and electricity.

Demand is of course vital but it won’t necessarily guarantee recovery and growth in real terms. The real test here is profit.

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Rice Experts See Better Prospects in New Seeds

Rice field in Cambodia

For five years now, Yin Narong has used a new method to plant rice. Instead of planting from the seeds of the previous year’s harvest, he buys new seeds from a local company.

The variation, he said in an interview, has been a boost in yield of 200 kilograms of rice each harvest on one-fifth a hectare.

“Now with pure seeds we get up to 900 kilograms,” the 52-year-ancient farmer in Phnom Penh’s Dangkor district said. He also uses less seeds, about 15 kilograms with the new method compared to 20 kilograms with the ancient.

A moderately low number of farmers like Yin Narong are using the new-seed method. But traditional habits persist, preventing the country from reaching its rice potential, agricultural economists say.

Many farmers still use rice seeds from the previous harvest to replant their paddies, instead of buying prime, new seeds from companies. Agricultural experts say the use of “pure” seeds can boost yields up to 20 percent.

“It is a challenge for Cambodia as the farmers still use their seeds saved for generations,” Nov Seiha, research manager for the Economic Institute of Cambodia, said. “Sometimes, the genes of the seeds have already died out.”

The old practice earnings that Cambodians harvest less rice per hectare than their regional neighbors.

A typical Cambodia harvest yields 2.6 tons per hectares, compared to 2.8 tons in Thailand, 3.5 tons in Laos and 4.9 tons in Vietnam, according to government statistics.

With more than 2.7 million hectares of cultivatable land, agriculture experts hope new methods and seeds can help the country reach a goal of 1 million tons of annual rice export by 2015.

The rice seed industry, but, ruins in a nascent stage. Cambodia has only one seed company. By comparison, Thailand has 85.

Cambodia’s company, Aquip Seed Co., Ltd., sells 2,600 tons or rice seeds annually to about 160,000 households, according to research by the Cambodian Economic Institute. In a report, the institute criticized the domestic seed sector as “backward” and “worried to modernize.”

The Ministry of Agriculture, which is charged in part with improving the sector, owns 49 percent of the company.

But company officials insist they are not interested in a monopoly.

“We need newcomers to boost demand in our country,” said Kong Vitank, chief executive of the company. “Then it also opens equal competition in the seed business.”

Ouk Makara, director of the ministry’s Cambodian Agricultural Research and Development Institute, said the ministry has “no authority” to maintain a monopoly.

“Our farmers have small plots of land, so they are not very interested in the company’s seeds,” he said.

Meanwhile, the government continues its efforts to improve the rice trade. It has introduced 10 varieties of rice paddy for farmers to grow this season, including rice that is well loved in foreign markets.

Yong Saingkoma, resident of the Cambodian Center for Study and Development in Agriculture, said if farmers do not want to buy new seeds each season, they can use their own seeds more effectively by choosing the right ones to plant.

“The starting point is to make sure farmers across the country know how to purify their seeds for the next growing seasons,” he said