With support of the European Union (EU), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture’s Fisheries Administration (FiA) launched a Value Chain Investment Support (VCIS) programme yesterday aiming to support Cambodia’s small, medium and large enterprises in post-harvest fisheries.
The VCIS is a co-investment scheme for the eligible fishery business operators to upgrade their productions and to add value to their products through food safety certifications to improve the competitiveness of their products in the national, regional and global marketplace.
VCIS provides both finance and non-financial support to Cambodian entrepreneurs, especially women and youth-owned businesses in post-harvest fisheries.
The programme offers support from $25,000 to $100,000 for eligible enterprises to upgrade their business operation to comply with food safety standards and market requirements. The VCIS opened the first round of applications last Sunday.
VCIS is expected to co-invest over $5 million with at least 100 enterprises along with their associated value chain actors in post-harvest fisheries.
FiA director-general Poum Sotha said that the VCIS scheme will benefit enterprises and create sustainable impacts for the businesses.
“Our aim is to improve the competitiveness of the Cambodia fishery businesses by establishing good practices, infrastructure, technology and food safety certification to achieve better markets not only within the country but also globally,” Sotha said.
According to UNIDO, fisheries remain one of the Cambodia’s key economic drivers and is a source of employment for vast percent of the population. The post-harvest fisheries sector has produced over 33,000 jobs especially for women.
The government recognised that fishery value chains are one of the pillars in the fisheries development having important roles in contributing to employment creation, food security and economic development as indicated in Strategic Planning for Fisheries (2016-25), Rectangular Strategy IV and the National Strategic Development Plan (NSDP) 2019-2023.
Bryan Fornari, head of cooperation of the EU, said that the EU-supported CAPFISH programme sets a long-term strategic plan to support the fishery sector and the private sector operators to strengthen and build a vibrant fisheries sector.
He said that VCIS leads to the realisation of valorising of fishery resources aiming at better markets globally including the EU.
UNIDO country representative Narin Sok said that agriculture sector modernisation is important to guide the development of the sector until 2030.
He said that the revitalisation of the sector is critical for economic development and for the livelihoods of a very large percentage of the population, as they continue to rely on agriculture, animal production, fisheries and forestry as main source of income.
He added that diversification of production, development of value chains and value-adding are all recognised as essential aspects for the modernisation of agriculture.
‘‘This will require an urgent transformation of the current agri-food system and a better awareness of the importance of nutrition and food safety,’’ Narin said.
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