As the coffee culture begins to gain popularity in Cambodia, international coffee chains have begun to sprout up while the country sees an increased demand for coffee beans.
Industry players agree that coffee is now big business in Cambodia with international coffee chains such Starbucks, Gloria Jeans and Erick Kaiser literally dotting every corner of the city.
Trailing closely behind the giant names is a local brand, Brown Coffee, which started operations in 2009. It wasn’t until last year that Brown Coffee began to gain popularity as it began to introduce various innovations from its menu to its branding as a whole.
Set up by a group of young Cambodian entrepreneurs, Brown Coffee which has a total of 20 outlets across Cambodia has now become a popular hangout place for youngsters either to work, play or study, in the comfort of a nice ambience.
As the Cambodian coffee business is seen to become more competitive, experts believe penetrating the market has now become more challenging.
Renowned Cambodian businessman and philanthropist Dr Mengly J Quach told Khmer Times that as competition builds up, coffee companies have to seek ways to sustain their business by maintaining their clientele.
“The booming of modern coffee shops is like a growth bubble, it will burst someday soon. While healthy competition is good for consumers, the pressure is on business owners to keep up with each other. In the past all that was needed was to have strong capital but it’s a different ball game now,” he said.
He added: “Cambodians seem to have a knack for copying each other’s business without first conducting market and background research, a recipe for failure.”
Neighbouring countries such as Laos, Vietnam and Thailand are main suppliers of coffee beans, therefore the focus should now be on having Cambodia’s very own supply of coffee beans instead of relying on imported ones.
Agriculture expert Yang Saing Koma said Cambodia sees an annual harvest of less than 10,000 tonnes of coffee beans, most of the Robusta variety.
“This is just a fraction of one million tonnes that neighbouring Vietnam produces annually while Thailand and Laos produce over 30,000 tonnes each per year respectively.
“Over 90 percent of the coffee sold in Cambodia is not local so there is a need to pique the interest of locals to venture into coffee-planting to produce high quality, organic coffee beans locally,” he added.
Ambassador and Permanent Representative at Permanent Mission of Cambodia to the World Trade Organization and other international organisations Kem Vichet Long confirms that Cambodia produces coffee of the finest quality that can rival that of other countries famous for the commodity.
“We had a slow start in this industry compared to other countries that have long had a coffee culture so there is a need for us to catch up.
“We should work on promoting Cambodian coffee brands to improve further either through certification marks or Geographical indication to gain international recognition from Ecocert and HACCP,” he said, while confirming that the coffee brings in $50 million for Cambodia annually.
This article was first published in Khmer Times. All contents and images are copyright to their respective owners and sources.
