Domestic and International Market Development for High-Value Cattle and Beef in South East Cambodia

Beef4Market

There is increasing demand for high-end consistent quality of beef into the Urban markets in Cambodia and southern Vietnam. At present market access for Cambodian cattle is constrained by a number of factors including growing requirements for local and international biosecurity, lack of market information and lack of capability to produce the required quality and quantity of product.

This 4 year project (ACIAR Project AH-2010-046) aims to support the development of a market chain that encourages smallholders in South East Cambodia to access the Ho Chi Minh City, Phnom Penh and Siem Reap markets. The project will work with selected traders in Kampong Cham and Pursat provinces and their individual clients and communities. The project will work directly with medium size traders (trading 30-50 cattle per day) in Market Chain Development Groups (MCDGs) and their respective collectors, farmers, depot operators and retailers. The project will trial the development of a 'clean market chain' whereby branded cattle from SE Cambodia will be sold for premium prices in urban supermarkets.

Underpinning this strategy is the principle that sustainable market chains ensure that all stakeholders in the market chain have economic incentives to work with smallholders to improve management of biosecurity and production.

In the first two years the project will develop a generic methodology for analysing market chains, identify present limitations to smallholder involvement in developing markets, and identify potential interventions. In the third and fourth years agreed interventions for improved animal health, biosecurity, animal production and market chains will be tested and evaluated.

Forage grasses making a difference in Cambodia

Raising Cow and Grass Production (Khmer)

Due for completion in 2016

Funded by: Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research

Partners: Environmental and Rural Science, University of New England; Cambodian National Department of Animal Health and Production (DAHP); Provincial Departments of Agriculture in Kampong Cham and Pursat (PDA); Royal University of Agriculture (RUA)

Contact: Geoff Smith