A 1,000-hectare estate in Mondulkiri province is being developed by Welt Bio Co Ltd, a wholly-owned local subsidiary of South Korean confectionary giant Sam Kwang Food, into what the company claims will be the world’s largest pepper plantation.
Welt Bio director Hojin Yi told the Phnom Penh Post that they were also considering cultivating coffee, but “right now, pepper is still more profitable”.
Yi said that once the full 1,000 hectares is ready for harvest sometime around 2020, it would be capable of producing some 20,000 tonnes of pepper – accounting for 5 percent of total global production.
According to Yi, about 60 percent of the $40 million that Sam Kwang has earmarked for the Cambodian project has already been invested, with construction on an onsite 4,200-square-metre processing factory expected to start early next year.
For more on this story, click here.
