Mong Reththy aims for one million pigs per year
The Mong Reththy Group have announced an ambitious plan to breed up to one million pigs per year by 2015 to boost local production and cut dependence on foreign sources, writes Chun Sophal and Hor Hab for The Phnom Penh Post.
The latest imports are part of a US$5-million plan announced last year to import 600 Yorkshire breeding pigs from a farm in northern England. The first shipment of 150 pigs arrived in Phnom Penh in mid-December, and the pigs were expected to provide the foundation of a new program to expand local pig farming.
Company CEO and President Mong Reththy said he is preparing to distribute the first generation of breeder piglets in the coming weeks. “I think the Cambodian people will not face a pork shortage for much longer as we continue to breed more piglets,” Mong Reththy said, adding that the company expected the remaining 450 Yorkshire breeders to arrive by early February.
To accommodate the growth extra facilities have been built, and the move has been welcomed by local farmers who see that the new Yorkshire piglets could improve the sector for farmers who have struggled to cope with rising demand and volatile prices.
The plan to grow more pigs domestically could turn Cambodia from a pig importer to a pig exporter, said the company. Cambodia consumes 7,000 pigs per day – 1,600 in Phnom Penh alone, according to figures from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.
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• The Phnom Penh Post
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