PHNOM PENH, Feb 14 – As part of the United States’ Feed the Future initiative, the U.S. Embassy’s office of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) announced new partnerships with Cambodian private sector agriculture firms BRM Agro, Khmer Organic Cooperative (KOC), and Leang Leng to expand economic opportunities and access to domestic and international markets for Cambodian smallholder farmers. The three partnerships will have a combined value of $4.4 million, over half of which comes directly from the private firm investments.

"These new partnerships directly support USAID’s goal to reduce financial risks for firms to test and promote innovative solutions that spur agricultural investments, boost incomes for agricultural workers, and increase high quality and safe Cambodian agricultural products,” said Hanh Nguyen, USAID/Cambodia Acting Mission Director.

Under the two-year partnership BRM Agro, an integrated rice farm and rice milling company located in Kampong Thom, will operationalize an expanded, state-of-the-art drying facility which will enable BRM Agro to source increased volumes of export quality fragrant rice from smallholder farmers.

KOC, a social agribusiness that produces and sells organic and good agricultural practice (GAP) certified horticulture products, will expand a cool-storage packing house to increase its capacity to process, store, and ship a consistent supply of organic agricultural products to local markets. This effort will engage more Cambodian smallholder farmers through training and source additional products from them. This comprehensive approach will increase farmer incomes, facilitate consumer access to safe and healthy food options and reduce Cambodia's reliance on imported vegetables.

Leang Leng, a family-owned business that produces a variety of sauces for sale to restaurants, supermarkets, and households, will invest in a new state-of-the-art bottling line for its chili and tomato sauces. Leang Leng will also build upon its contract farming model scheme which sources from smallholders and expands sales into five new Cambodian provinces.

Feed the Future is the U.S. Government's global initiative to address hunger and food security, and supports broader U.S. Mission efforts in Cambodia to promote economic development through greater engagement with the private sector.