Cambodia Gets First Commercial Cow Farm

BY Jenara Nerenberg
Fast Company.com
Today

The country's current supply of fresh milk is entirely imported, but that is about to change with the introduction of New Zealand's Holstein cows.

Cambodia is set to get its first commercial cow farm this year with construction on a 247-acre farm breaking ground this month.

Cambodia's current supply of fresh milk is 100% imported and the cow farm is meant to change that--and as Cambodia is still largely agricultural, it's surprising that commercial cow farms don't already exist.

There was talk of an earlier joint cow farm venture between Cambodia's Mong Reththy Group (MRG) and the British farming company, Lordswood Farms, last year, but it's not clear if that panned out.

Either way, Cambodia is taking a leap in agricultural innovations this year and the farm that's set to open is a joint venture between the Cambodian 7NG Group and Sweden’s HPT Dairy Company. They entered into a $250 million deal whereby the highly productive Holstein cow breed will be imported from New Zealand with a goal of producing about 317,000 gallons of milk in the first year of operation. The farm is set to begin operating in November of 2011.

“This is the first time in history that our country will produce fresh cows’ milk,” said Srey Chanthou, managing director of 7NG Group. “We hope it will be successful, and that we can expand our business further.”

Cambodia is looking to expand its agricultural productivity in other ways--late last year the firm Angkor Kasekam Roongroeung announced plans to operate its first rice-husk-powered generator to, you guessed it, mill rice.