The components of members in the Siem Reap Chamber of Commerce, there are fifteen membership as elected members; advisory members and ordinary members and have 4 Sector.

Agriculture Sector:

 - To promote and improve quality such as rubber, rice, fruitful, corn, sesame seed, bean, pepper, and
   other for export to abroad.
 - To research and circulate the product price and demand of agro-products in local and international
   market in order for farmers to select the producing crops.
 - To participate in every issue concerning developing agricultural and food processing enterprises and 
   preparing for agro-industry policy as direction for processing and manufacturing investment.
 - To incorporate with other department and cooperate with international organizations in context of
   investment condition and also draft the plan related to agricultural sector.

Table of General Crops Production (all figures in MT)

Rice:

Rice ecosystems in Cambodia are divided for four major types: rainfed lowlands (including areas with supplementary irrigation), rainfed uplands, areas of deepwater/floating cultivation, and dry season irrigated land. About 58 percent of the harvested rice comes from rainfed lowland ecologies, and 32 percent from deepwater ecologies. As part of a strategy to reduce risks and to distribute labour, many farmers still plant several rice varieties in the same field in separate small plots. About 70 to 80 percent of the dry season cultivated areas are under high yielding varieties.

FISHERY SECTOR STRUCTURE In Cambodia, rice and fish products have been considered as the major means of generating food. Fisheries are one of the most important sectors, playing an important role in the daily food production and contributing to the national economy. Especially the freshwater fisheries are one of the most productive in the world due to the presence of large floadplains around the Great Lake and as along the Tonle Sap and the Mekong rivers. Marine fishery is small compared to the inland fishery as is the aquaculture sector.

Cambodia has a small coastline of 435 km. The marine fishing grounds are located on the eastern bank of the Gulf of Thailand. Marine fisheries were slowly developed compared to freshwater fisheries. Technology applied by Cambodian fishermen before 1980 was very traditional. Fishing activities restarted in late 1979 with very few fishing boats. The average catch per unit is low compared to Thailand and Vietnam due to less fishing effort and poor fishing technology. There are four provinces bordering the sea as well as Koh Kong, Sihanoukville, Kampot and Krong Kep. The classification of fishing activities in the Cambodian Economic Exclusive Zone comprises two main groups; coastal and commercial fisheries.

Landing locations are not separated from fishing locations in the official statistics. But most fish is landed in Sihanoukville (21 200 t) and Koh Kong (17 750 t) (2001). Harbour facilities are limited. Much of the catch is transferred on the ocean to Thai vessels for landing in Thailand.

Fishing production means

The coastal fishery is characterized by small family-scale fishing operating in fishing zone 1, which extends from the coast to a depth of 20 m. Boats used are without engines or with engines of less than 50 hp. The numbers of boats per horsepower category are shown in table 1. Licenses are not required for boats with no engine or with engine below 33 hp. Boats with more than 33 hp engine pay a license fee of 27 000 Riel (= US$7) per horsepower per year. Fishing activities not allowed includes trawling, light fishing and illegal fishing gear.

The commercial fishery is characterized by large-scale fishing from 20 m depth to the limit of the EEZ. Boats, in general, use engines of more than 50 hp, which also pay a fee of 27 000 Riel per horsepower per year. They use all different kinds of fishing gears including single trawling. Prohibited fishing gear and methods include pair trawling, light fishing and other illegal fishing gear.

Inland sub-sector

The inland fishery of Cambodia is one of the richest natural resources in the Mekong river region and in the world, due to its seasonal changes of water regime and its ecological diversity. The high productivity stems from the annual inundation by the Mekong River of the large floodplains found in central Cambodia around the Tonle Sap Great Lake and the Tonle Sap and Mekong floodplains northeast and south of Phnom Penh, where important fish habitats such as flood forests are found. The inland fisheries can be divided into large, middle and small-scale fisheries. Large-scale fisheries are licensed fisheries, which operate for commercial purpose. Large-scale fisheries are mainly dominated by a system of lots, or concessions, auctioned out by the government to private businesses. Middle-scale fishing indicates the use of medium-size fishing gear operating in the protected open water of the inland fisheries domain. There are 24 types of middle-scale fishing gear defined in the sub-decree. Usually, employment of this scale of fishing gear varies from two units to not higher than a dozen units. Fish caught by these methods are not as good quality as fish caught in the fishing lots as fish are killed and injured during capture and sold immediately to markets or to fish processors in the immediate area. Small-scale fisheries are family fisheries, based on small-size fishing gear that can be operated by one or two persons. Also rice field fishing is considered small-scale. Formerly, these fisheries were excluded from the official fisheries statistics and ignored by the fisheries administration.

Catch profile

The Mekong hosts over 1.000 species of fish, Coates et al., 2003, one of the highest species counts of any river system in the world, 500 of these species occur in Cambodia, Rainboter, 1996. However most of the catches are composed of ten species or less. The main commercial species are: Small River carp Henicorhyndus canensis, giant snake head Chama microgettes, river barb, small-scale mid carp cisshienusmicrolepis, and river catfish pangasionodan pangasius spp. Estimates (by the MRC Capture Fisheries Project at the Department of Fisheries) suggest that the inland fisheries of Cambodia produce between 289.000 and 431.000 tonnes of fish each year, 235.000 of which come from the Tonle Sap Great Lake with an estimated value at landing of US$ 300 millions (Hortle et al., 2004.). The catch can be divided into the different fisheries and is shown in table 4.

Fish utilization

The main fish products derived from the fresh water fisheries are: fish paste, fermented fish/steamed fish, dry salted fish, smoked fish, fish sauce, and dried fish for animal feed. The main marine fish products are: dry salted fish, steamed fish, fish meal and dried shrimp, squid, and sea cucumber. These products are both for the domestic and international market. Commodities of freshwater fisheries are: first, second and third grade fish, kamp eel Manepterus albues, prawn (Macrobrachium), fingerlings and baby crocodiles. Marine fisheries commodities are: shrimp lobster, crab, squid, octopus, cuttle fish, and first, second and third grade fish. A license from the Fisheries Department is required to transport fish from one province to the other is required, which creates high cost and is very time consuming as the license has to be presented many times along the route. Margins are therefore high. There is different preservation techniques used for transport; iced, salted, live in cages and live in boats. These techniques are also used to transport to neighboring countries.

Fish markets

Change in fish export marketing in Cambodia in the last ten years is found in the diversification of exported fish commodities. Remarkably, after the 1993 general election the Thai market increased its demand for many fish commodities, both inland and marine. The Vietnamese export market is focused on swamp eel (Monopterus albus), bronze featherback (Noptoterus noptoterus), giant snakehead (Channa micropeltes), and third grade fish, small size fish caught by all kinds of gear, for fish feed and fish sauce manufacture. Vietnam also imports river catfish fry (Pangasiidae) for aquaculture development. Other Asian markets, including Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong and mainland China, were importing more lucrative commodities, often live, such as the sand goby (Oxyleotris marmorata), crocodiles, water snakes, poisonous snakes, coral fish, marine shrimp, squid, mantis shrimp, etc, for exotic foods, skins, the aquarium trade, and traditional drug-making. The trade in wildlife became illegal in June 2002. Frozen fish is exported through the seaport of Sihanoukville and fresh and live fish is exported via the international airport of Phnom Penh.

Economic role of fisheries in the national economy

Fisheries play an extremely important role to the Cambodian economy. The fishery GDP in 2003 was US$442 million or 12% of the total GDP. Inland fisheries produce an estimated 295 000-420 000 tonnes of fish each year with an estimated value at landing of between US$150 m and US$200 m and a retail value of up to US$500 million. The total volume of seafood harvested is speculated to be 30 000 to 50 000 tonnes per year, valued at about US$30 million to US$50 million (US$1/kg of seafood on average).

Rubber Cultivation/Plantation

During the first eight months of the year 2002, the seven stated owned rubber plantations and the Rubber Research Institute of Cambodia included the Pilot Project have maintained and monitored the planted rubber trees on the total areas of 12,034.44 hectares in which the plantings in 2002 is 3,043.11 hectares.

Smallholder Rubber Development

The General Directorate of Rubber Plantations (GDRP) has cooperated with Agence Française de Développement (AFD) in promoting the development of smallholdings in Cambodia through aid granting of US$ 2,8 millions for the period of three years covered from 1999-2001. This project delayed for one year by using the residual credit from the previous phase. Up to the year 2002, the Pilot Project has maintained and monitored the immature rubber trees on the total areas of 881.55 hectares in which the plantings in 2002 is 433.30 hectares.