BY SETH MEIXNER
Chrang Chamres – On the long, gently sloping bank of Cambodia's Tonle river, Doem Lao chops half a dozen large fish heads in the early morning for the one meal that her family will eat that day.
It is the 45-year-old farmer's fourth unseasonably cold dawn in this quiet Muslim neighborhood on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, where her extended family has set up camp with others from their village in the southern province of Takeo.
Like tens of thousands of rural Cambodians, they have joined the annual migration to the river to buy enough fish to make a year's worth of prahok, the pungent fermented paste that is the only source of protein for many in the Kingdom’s impoverished rural regions.
But the rice they brought from home has nearly run out and the fish have yet to appear in the large nets strung across the river in front of their camp.
The crude bamboo and metal mesh processing stalls on the riverbank are silent – and February is the last month of the fishing season.
A sudden drop-off in the numbers of prahok fish has seen their price more than triple this year, up to as high as 50 US cents a kilogram from around 12 cents, putting this most basic of Cambodian commodities out of reach for many.
While not normally a benchmark by which to measure food security, prahok prices have highlighted the spiraling costs of staple goods that are threatening Cambodia's poorest with hunger.
"We eat prahok every day. Last year we made so much that we could sell some or trade it for rice," Doem Lao said, sitting in a tight circle with other village women and a few young children.
"This year I'm not at all hopeful. Some of us have left already. We're not going to have enough prahok. We're not even going to have enough rice," she said.
Across Asia the cost of food is rising, for a variety of reasons, from higher demand and spiking global oil prices to environmental factors like global warming which disrupt the normal agricultural cycles.
But while other regional governments have responded by cutting import tariffs or establishing national food stockpiles, Cambodia appears reluctant to step in and halt the upward climb of food costs.
For poor Cambodians, this means that in addition to losing their prahok, they are not able to supplement their already meager diets with other foods, particularly meat.
"Everything now is so expensive," said another village woman, Bhum Sap, rattling off the current prices of chicken, pork and beef, which can cost as much as $5 a kilogram.
A victim of its own success
Cambodia, in some ways, has become a victim of its own economic success. The country has recorded economic growth averaging 11 percent over the past three years, spurred on by a galloping tourism sector and strong garment and building industries.
Growing interest by foreign investors and a real estate boom that has helped create more than a few overnight millionaires have resulted in an unprecedented explosion of wealth.
But the sudden influx of cash into the fragile economy has not come without its pitfalls.
Over the past year inflation has spiked at 10.8 percent, compared with 2.8 percent at the end of 2006, driving up the cost of food and other staple goods and pushing the most vulnerable deeper into poverty.
"About 8.5 percentage points of December's inflation rate of 10.8 percent was accounted for by food price inflation," said the International Monetary Fund's Cambodia representative John Nelmes.
For as many as 2.6 million people living in extreme poverty, the situation has been worsening over the last several years, which have been marked by poor harvests brought on by natural disasters such as flood or drought.
“Too many Cambodians still suffer from hunger and malnutrition for some or most of the time,” the World Food Programme (WFP) said on its website.
The unrelenting rise in food costs only adds more depth to their misery.
“WFP is very concerned about the general increase of the cost of the staples, in Cambodia as well as elsewhere,” said WFP country director for Cambodia, Thomas Keusters.
Food inflation has affected aid efforts at a crucial time, as aid agencies anticipate the need for more handouts in rural areas facing a leaner than normal year ahead.
In January last year, the WFP paid $237 per metric tonne of rice, a cost that has now risen to $367 a tonne, Keusters said.
“For every dollar received from the international and local donor community, we buy 55 percent less rice. With the general increase in the cost of food, the need for food assistance will not decrease,” he said.
“On the contrary. As Cambodia faces new challenges such as climate change, changes in food availability, high energy prices, globalization and many more, we all need to strategize better,” he said. (AFP)
Phnom Penh Post, Issue 17 / 05, March 7 - 20, 2008
