Nestle Unveils Export Plans

Nestle Dairy (Cambodia) Ltd hopes to become the first multinational corporation to produce food products in Cambodia for export to other Asean nations, officials said last week.

The company, whose Phnom Penh factory currently employs 120 workers, wants to export its sweetened beverage creamer to buyers in Burma and Laos, said Dominique Peterhans, general manager of the company.

Nestle is hoping to export as much as 6,000 tons of the creamer per year, company spokesman Soeum Narin said.

Currently, the company only produces goods for national consumption, but such export volumes would require the need for a second shift and an additional 60 workers, Peterhans said.

But that number will depend on favorable customs duty ex­emp­tions from the Council of the Development of Cambodia on raw materials such as cream, Soeum Narin said.

He said the CDC already has said it agrees with the company “in principal,” but the company is still waiting for an official letter of consent.

That is expected soon, he said, with export operations planned for next month.

The Ministry of Commerce hailed Nestle’s announcement as a model for other multinational companies.

“If one big company can succeed here, other big companies can succeed here,” said Khek Ravy, secretary of state for the Commerce Ministry.

The ministry is “pushing for the venture to succeed,” Khek Ravy said. A moratorium on a Ministry of Agriculture export tax helped the move, he said.

 

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