Hyundai Corporation and Cambodian mango producer Mao Legacy have partnered to establish a mango facility in Cambodia’s Kampong Speu province, reports the Phnom Penh Post.
A local subsidiary of the South Korean car conglomerate has invested US$4m in a processing and distribution centre in Cambodia, which will be used to wash, process and package mangoes from Hyundai’s own orchard as well as Mao Legacy’s mangoes.
“We invested US$4m into an exporting system and facility to produce high-quality mangoes for export to the global market,” Lee Changhoon, representative for Hyundai Corporation (Cambodia) Co Ltd, told the Phnom Penh Post. “To add value, we plan in the next step to set up another facility for drying and freezing mangoes to produce juice, jams, etc.”
Hyundai operates a 400ha plantation, while Mao Legacy owns some 2,000ha of mangoes, producing high quality mangoes for new export markets in Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
Lee said the focus would be on increasing exports to Japan and South Korea, offering growers opportunities to grow shipments outside of Thailand and Vietnam.
“We will teach farmers and local communities how to produce good-quality mangoes,” he said. “Farmers will no longer have to worry about buyers or price, because we will contract to buy from them.”
