The Workshop on Launching of Value Chain Investment Support (VCIS) for fishery-based SMEs and large enterprises

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• Excellency Poum Sotha, Delegate of the Royal Government of Cambodia, in charge of Director General of Fishery Administration
• Mr. Brian Fornari, Head of Cooperation of the European Union to the Kingdom of Cambodia. Warm welcome to you for being assigned to work in the Kingdom of Cambodia
• Exellencies, ladies and gentlemen! 

I am delighted to be here and join you all for the launch of “Value Chain Investment Support for fishery based SMEs and large enterprises” programme, which is an initiative we expect to directly and indirectly benefit approximately 500 MSMEs, producer groups, cooperatives and SMEs along the fishery post-harvest value chain.   

This initiative is in fact another milestone achievement under fishery value chain development project, generally known as CAPFish-capture, after thorough considerations taking into account baseline studies conducted so far.

As you may know, post-harvest fisheries value chains in Cambodia are complex and multi-functional. The involved actors are mostly informal and dominated by micro-scale processors, who are generally running unregistered businesses and majority of them are owned by women.

According to a recent study commissioned by UNIDO, 89% of fishery processing businesses are not registered and more than 60% of them are managed/owned by women. The micro and small enterprises managed by women represented 41% and 17%, respectively. However, the small-medium size enterprises are led by men, represented two times higher than those led by women. These findings are co-responding to the National Social-Economic Census 2014, which reported that around 97% of enterprises in Cambodia are on a micro-scale and led by women.

The businesses, including fishery related, are generally less competitive due to a number of factors such as lack of production knowledge and know how, use of primitive technologies, and inability to meet food safety standards. It is also compounded by lack of access to market information, finance, know-how and technology, business support services, and quality inputs.

To address the above challenges, today’s launch will mark the start of our support, which is generously supported by the European Union, to build capacities of fishery enterprises and its supporting institutes in the country to enhance their productivity, sustainability and competitiveness. This support is very timely as many of the challenges or issues faced by these enterprises are exacerbated by impact of Covid-19 pandemic.

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen!

Let me take this opportunity to provide a snapshot of our Value Chain Investment Support (or VCIS). The VCIS will provide Equipment and Technical Supports to fishery based post-harvest Small, Medium and Large Enterprises in order to upgrade their business operations  implement food safety standards, meet market requirements and improve competitiveness. The TA supports would include business planning, business management skills, financial literacy and market linkage.  Thereafter, they can expect sustainable growth, continue to create employment, improve livelihoods and generate competitive profits.

During this first round of the call for proposals, we commit to support 20-40 interested and eligible fishery post-harvest SMEs. The support will be of valued up to USD 25,000 for Small Enterprises including cooperatives and up to USD 100,000 for Medium and Large Enterprises. This VCIS has dual benefits. Firstly, at enterprise level, the VCIS support allows the enterprises to upgrade the operations including adopting better food safety practices and obtain certifications for better competitiveness. Secondly, at the sectoral level, the VCIS support would trigger additional financial investment in post-harvest fishery sector boosting the use of untapped resources and add value to it.  This directly contributing to achieve better food systems. Overall, the VCIS scheme increasingly becoming important in the midst of Covid 19 where the fishery businesses experienced significant impact. 

VCIS is here to support you!

Therefore, I encourage all interested applicants specifically the fishery post-harvest SMEs to take advantage of this great opportunity to develop your product identities while complying with food safety standards and meeting consumer’s expectations.  As results, each of you can make better access to and availability of safe, quality and nutritious fishery product. This builds more trust on local products among consumers while building sustainable foods system in the country.

As the support will be provided on first come, first serve basis, feel free to reach out to my colleagues to ask for more information and seek for clarifications on application process that you might have.

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen!

Taking this opportunity, on behalf of UNIDO team, I would like to sincerely thank EU for entrusting post-harvest fishery component of CAPFish to UNIDO.  It is one of the flagship programmes in the framework of PCP which is jointly developed with the RGC to support the implementation of Industrial Development Policy (IDP 2015-2025). Let me also express our gratitude toward the Fisheries Administration under the leadership of H.E. Poum Sotha and Department of Post- Harvest Fishery, Testing and Quality (DPFTQ) for excellent cooperation and support to UNIDO project team. I am also thankful to UNIDO team which is led by Dr. Shetty Thombathu, Chief Technical Advisor for making this programme materialized Once again, warm welcome to Mr. Brian Fornari and we look forward to working closely with you to achieve more results under this programme and others.

To conclude my remark, I wish Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen good health, happiness and success in your works and stay safe.

KHMER LANGUAGE