Kamkav Farm Co Ltd

RED VOLCANIC SOIL

No one also ever suspected that the red volcanic soil and the altitude of the Mondulkiri and Ratanakiri provinces would give such perfect conditions for a crop like cacao. These provinces were also far too isolated. Until the Chinese built a new asphalt road in 2007. This road reduced the travel time between Phnom Penh and the province capital Sen Monorom from more than two days to six hours.

In 2014 a Dutchman and a Cambodian, Stefan, and Chanthol, became friends and decided to establish a Cambodian cacao company called Kamkav Farm. Our founders bought land in a hilly and forested area near the famous Bu Sra waterfall in Mondulkiri. Because they lacked more detailed knowledge about cacao, they turned to the Vietnamese expert Dinh Lam for help. With the support of Lam and of Mars Sustainable, they started the first cacao farm in Cambodian history

DROUGHT

The initiative almost failed due to a devastating drought in 2015. Our company lost almost all of the cacao trees. We were knocked out but decided to start all over again and our perseverance was finally rewarded at the end of 2018 with our first cacao pods. Now we can proudly say that we put our Kingdom of Wonder on the world map as the 67th country that is producing cacao. And not just ordinary cacao but cacao with a truly unique flavor profile; thanks to the organic approach, the red soil, the altitude, the weather conditions in general and also our fermentation techniques. Our cacao beans are not sour, but nutty, floral and above all have a wonderful cacao flavor!

CACAO ASSOCIATION

Meanwhile, many small-scale farmers in our remote provinces became fascinated by this new exciting crop, they never saw before. The interest gave us the idea to start a cacao nursery and to use our acquired knowledge for fellow farmers. In 2019 our good friend Em Veasna set up a Cacao Farmers Association (CFARM) and asked us to join. Together with this association, we guided the first 11 small-scale farmers from our province Mondulkiri, to start with cacao as well. In the next rainy season (2020) we expect at least 20 more farmers to join.

AGROFORESTRY

As of 2017 we only use organic fertilizers like cow manure. This approach also resulted in our own small cow farm with the first 15 cows. We create compost in several locations in the farms where we mix organic material and cow manure. Our organic pest control means battling insects and fungi with our own formula of cooked leaves and bark from the neem tree, raising chickens to keep the number of termites in control and using stingless bees for pollination of the cacao flowers. Mondulkiri is plagued by deforestation due to the high prices Vietnamese and Chinese companies pay for tropical timber. We try to bring back some forests by intercropping our cacao trees with banana, avocado, durian, jack fruit and shadow trees like Leucaena and of course Neem trees. Ecocert in Singapore has inspected our farms and we expect to get the organic certifications EOS and NOP in August 2020.