Pig farmers form taskforce to curb illicit smuggling
Cambodia’s pig farmers created a new taskforce on April 27 to combat pig smuggling along Cambodia’s borders that is leading to falling prices for domestic producers. Mong Rethhy, co-chair of the Cambodian Chamber of Commerce’s working group on the agricultural industry, gathered the Kingdom’s major pig farmers and firms to establish a taskforce supported by the Ministry of Agriculture. The initiative hopes to strengthen pig import procedures in order to eliminate illegal cross-border swine trade. With current prices for pork at $1.25 per kilo, which falls below the breakeven point for domestic farmers, Rethhy said yesterday that if smuggling was not curbed, more small pig farmers would leave the industry due to crippling losses in revenue. “There is a lot of pig smuggling along the border that is impacting the price in the market,” he said. “We need to set up the taskforce in order to ensure our local pig farmers can survive and to make sure that we maintain a good meat quality in the country.”
