A battle over control of the ice business in Kompong Chhnang province heated up Tuesday with two ice vendors filing complaints with the provincial court accusing local authorities of engaging in skulduggery to protect a province-wide ice monopoly.
The dispute over who has the right to sell ice in Kompong Chhnang reached the boiling point Sunday when ice vendors took up knives and axes to protect a truckload of ice that police were attempting to impound.
In recent weeks, Kompong Chhnang police have impounded minivans carrying cargoes of ice from nearby Odong town, Kompong Speu province, in a bid to prevent the import of cheap ice.
The cargoes of ice were left to melt in the midday heat as their owner, Lay Muoy, was left to muse about the reality of free trade in Cambodia and what rules were preventing her bringing ice across a provincial boundary.
Kompong Chhnang Governor Sou Phirin and provincial Police Chief Touch Narath said Tuesday that they launched the campaign to ban imported ice in a bid to protect Kompong Chhnang ice producers from bankruptcy.
Ice producers in Kompong Chhnang province currently sell slabs of frozen water for $1.50 per 50-kg block. That figure is twice the price of ice in Odong.
Sou Phirin said he didn’t understand why there was so much fuss about his ban on ice.
“Younger brother, this is a very tiny business that is not worth your reporting,” Sou Phirin said by telephone. “Don’t report on such small things; do reports on bigger stories such as crimes and drug raids and so on,” he said.
Asked what law he had invoked to deploy police to stop ice entering Kompong Chhnang province, Sou Phirin declined to comment.
“If we don’t protect domestic [ice] production, the outside product would kill it,” he said.
Kompong Chhnang Court Prosecutor Mak Panny said Tuesday the action was unlawful and could indicate collusion between officials and the ice vending monopoly.
“It is inappropriate that the authorities should block trade as simple and domestic as ice,” he said. “This crackdown should have been ordered by the prosecutor. They never reported to me.”
“This is just simple trade of local products such as bananas and other tradable goods. I think people should be allowed to trade if it helps them find cheaper goods,” Mak Panny said.
Mak Panny said he had ordered police to release the minivans, but police ignored the demand until the ice melted.
Mak Panny said he would begin on Wednesday to study the complaints filed against the local authorities by the ice vendors.
