With an increasing population, rising household income, and greater infrastructure development in Cambodia, opportunities are emerging for the vegetable industry to supply hotels, hospitals, supermarkets, and restaurants. These institutional buyers need more vegetables for their menus and are looking for more reliable suppliers who can give them a constant supply at a good price while maintaining good quality. With increasing competition from imported products, domestic vegetable producers are unable to meet the demand, the quality specifications, or supply the institutional market at a competitive price. As the majority of the vegetable farmers in Cambodia cultivate less than 3 hectares, producers and producer organizations must collaborate to consolidate their produce. One of the many alternatives for vegetable marketing is to form clusters. An example of this vegetable cluster was formed in December 2018 at Trapeangpring Khancheoung village, Trapeangpring commune, Teukchhou district, Kampot province. It has interconnected stakeholders such as producers, buyers, input suppliers, and service providers being supported by the Ministry of Commerce’s Accelerating Inclusive Markets for Smallholders Project (AIMS). The cluster was formed with the aim of strengthening smallholder farmers by adopting agri-business approaches to have access to the market and to the other actors of the value chain for mixed vegetables. For more information, see the link
