Environment and land

The government will attempt to boost transparency in the energy sector by holding an auction for the two major petroleum concessions in the Gulf of Thailand ahead of their expiration dates, instead of granting existing operators the right to extend the concessions without new bidders. The ...

With 72 per cent of Cambodian black pepper production coming from Tbong Khmum province, agriculture officials are calling for it to receive Geographic Indicator status to promote the spice for export. Hean Vanhan, deputy-general director of the general department of agriculture, said on 30 May that if ...

Vietnam cattle feeders spent millions of US dollars importing 311,523 head of Australian young beef calves last year— betting that retail prices for beef on the supermarket shelves had nowhere to go but up. Now the feeders, who buy calves and fatten them for sale to ...

Legal timber exports to Vietnam – the bulk of them rosewood – soared between 2013 and 2015, with the volume of logs exported increasing by a factor of 142 and seven times as much sawn wood passing across the border, according to a report by ...

Viet Nam’s cashew industry is expected to enjoy strong export growth in the coming years, especially shipments to the US, according to the Viet Nam Cashew Association. Viet Nam has been the world’s largest cashew nut exporter for many years, with exports reaching US$2.5 billion last ...

Critics claim an all-star conservation group set up to tackle deforestation has missed the mark by advocating an artificially grown forest, which they say will not result in sustainability and rich biodiversity. Many people have welcomed the plan by the Plook Loei Group, which is led ...

Between 2009 and 2012, the Ministry of Environment went on nationwide leasing spree, signing over vast swaths of the country’s nominally protected areas to private companies for rubber plantations and other agribusiness ventures. A new map of Cambodia’s protected areas shows the 36,000-hectare concession controlled by ...

Chevron Corp is weighing a sale of a roughly US$500-million stake in its Thailand gas field even as the government moves to negotiate a better return from petroleum concessions held the US company and PTT Exploration & Production Plc. Chevron is seeking to divest some Asian ...

Thailand government has ordered a restructuring of the Command Centre to Combat Illegal Fishing with Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister Chatchai Sarikulya replacing navy chief Na Areenij as head of the center. Under the new structure, the Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry, particularly its Fisheries Department, will be the ...

Betagro group is consolidating six business units into two to allow the agribusiness and food group to play a more prominent role in the regional and world markets. The six old business units were food, swine, poultry, regional, feedmill and animal health. The two new core ...