With Cambodia’s traditional cash crops struggling to compete in the global market, harvesting and exporting commercial cannabis could be the solution the Kingdom’s troubled agricultural sector is looking for, suggested a Cambodia-based American innovator.
Jim Plamondon, a former technical evangelist for Microsoft now working closely with the rice sector in Cambodia, wrote in an article posted on newmandala.org on Monday that cannabis, the plant that produces marijuana, could be extremely lucrative for the Kingdom’s agricultural sector. The country could profit from this potential gold mine if it acts fast to take advantage of falling legal barriers in the US, where, after the recent elections, the plant was legalised for medical use in the majority of its 50 states.
“The key point is that after the November elections in the US, [full legalisation] is inevitable,” wrote Plamondon, adding that if the Kingdom acted now to modify the law to allow for the harvesting of the plant in Cambodian soil, it could build a world-class cannabis supply chain for export in about five years.
Khan Samban, director of the industrial crops department at the Ministry of Agriculture, said that while cannabis cultivation was still illegal here, the government could consider lifting the ban. “It is an easy crop for planting and can grow in many areas,” he said. “I think the government would consider amending the law for special cases.”
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