Cambodia works to ensure food supply amid pandemic
The Cambodian government on April 21 urged domestic instant noodle producers to increase daily output to nearly 700,000 boxes, aiming to maintain a stable supply and price of the product in the market amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Phnom Penh (VNA)– The Cambodian government on April 21 urged domestic instant noodle producersto increase daily output to nearly 700,000 boxes, aiming to maintain a stablesupply and price of the product in the market amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The move follows PrimeMinister Hun Sen's order on April 5 for noodle producers and bottled drinkingwater companies to boost production during the outbreak.
The government said Cambodia currently has three instant noodle factories withan output of about 670,000 boxes per day. These factories have been required toset up a stockpile of about 150,000 boxes of noodles.
Previously, on April 16, Cambodian Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Srey Vuthy said the government hasencouraged local importers to buy pork products for stockpiling with the volume of130 tonnes per day in the next three months as part of effort to ensure adequatesupply of food and foodstuff to people during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Annually, Cambodiaconsumes about 290,000 tonnes of meat, including 82,000 tonnes of beef, 153,000tonnes of pork, 54,000 tonnes of poultry and 165 tonnes of other meats. The SoutheastAsian nation can produce 239,000 tonnes of meat, meeting 82 percent of domesticdemand./.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has forecasted that Cambodia's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will experience a negative growth of 1.7 percent in 2020 due to social distancing measures to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Illustrative image (Photo: C-Post) 
