Field Visit to Kompot Province

Journalists Reports

I.          Introduction

International business club had conducted the very first field study to Kampot province with new members on Sunday 7th April, 2019. Kompot province is one of the most famous provinces, located in the Southern part of Cambodia. There are many places to visit in Kompot, however, we decided to visit a village called Prey Tom, Prey Khmum commune, Teouk Chhou district, Kampot province. In order to make the field study more excited, challenging and different from our previous field studies, we came up with a theme called “Journalists Field Study”. By that term, members were divided into 4 teams to do Reporting challenge at 4 different locations in the village. Along the way to our destination, we also had a challenge that required each team to compose a poem about Kompot Province which was very fun and entertained.

II.         Purposes

The sole purpose of this journey was to encourage students who are at the age of exploring new things to experience a local lifestyle at a countryside and know the process of how local people produce some of the Khmer products including Palm sugar, Num Banh Chok (Tradition Cambodia vermicelli) and bird nest production. Moreover, we wanted to bond strong relationship between members through extensively testing their survival skills and teamwork capabilities in the rural area as well as improving their communication skills.

III.       Local Business and Places

1.         Location 1: Prey Tom Pagoda

To understand the mindset and lifestyle of the local Kampot people, our teams had continued from the starting point after the break to the local pagoda, Wat Prek Tom. Located in Preytom village, Prey Khmum commune, Teouk Chhou district, Kampot province; this pagoda was constructed in 1952 by Lon Nol. According to the monk “Prei Tom” was changed over the period from an initial name of “Prei Dom”. The Vihea was built in 1952, but then paused in 1964 and finished in 2001. Half surrounded by pond which in Buddhism, people believe there must be water source in pagoda for the benefit of monk and Buddhist usage. Plus, it stands for ‘’Sras Srong.’’ Moreover, there is a primary school at the left side as you walked into the pagoda, Wat Preytom. The school has around 300 students in all eight classrooms and one headquarter which were donated by KOMATSU WORKERS UNION JAPAN in 1997.

2.         Location 2: Palm Sugar House

A short walk from pagoda, we found a few households that produce palm sugar and we decided to stop by a house to interview the family and see the process of how Palm Sugar are made. The way they obtain the juice is that they have to climb palm trees by using bamboo pipes to store the juice. The product cycle of sugar palm/production processes are illustrated as follow. First, they have to collect the fresh palm’s juice and then boil it in a big hot pan using wood or fuel. The Palm juice will then be boiled for 3 hours until juice become curd (hard form of juice). Next, the curd is used to stir for approximately 20 to 30 minutes. Generally, the family boiled palm juice two times every day. Each time required 40 liters. With 40 liters of palm juice, they can produce 10 kg of sugar palm.  What even more fascinated is that they still use tradition tool in order to stir and harden the juice until it become sugar. When we asked about customer and the price range, we were also told that the customers are mostly their neighbors. They bought from them and sold it to the local market. It currently cost 6, 000 riels per kilogram. Sugar palms are sold for approximately around 10 to 12kg per day based on how much a family can collect the juice from the palm tree.

3.         Location 3: Swiftlet or Bird Nest House

There are a couple of swiftlets’ houses around the Prei Tom pagoda. Due to privacy and some policies, our team wasn’t allowed to enter the house since it could disturb and scare the swiftlets away. It was a kind of family business which require large amount of capital. According to the people there, owner had built a house just for the bird and hire 1 or 2 people to look after that house and come to collect the product once every 2 or 3 months. Moreover, the caretaker said that in the house there was a speaker that will be played a certain type of sound that could attract swiftlets. That house had around 2-3 floors with formal design and fence around. Furthermore, she added that the swiftlets would normally leave the house at around 4 in the morning to find food and come back into the house at 6 in the evening. To our understanding, this type of business needs quite lot of time and capital to invest before the owner can make profit and once the bird nests are collected, the price can be very expensive depended on their qualities and sizes. Regarding this, we have seen that the target customers of this type of business are mostly rich people who could afford to buy high-end natural bird nest which is very good for their health.

4.         Location 4: Kompot Traditional Noodle House

Another family business with a small budget and profit, the seller has stated that she has run this business for around seven years. She uses 50 cans of rice to make noodle per day instead of buying it from the market and sells together with several kinds of soup such as chicken curry soup, Khmer fish soup and Kampot soup also known as “Tirk M’hech”, a very famous and unique traditional soup in Kampot province. The process of making noodle is not as easy as she has to make fresh dough every day in order to make the noodle and for the “Tirk M’hech” soup, the process and the ingredient are different from other soups because it is made with a special type of Sea fish that could be found in Kompot Province and putting together with other ingredient, the taste of this soup is surprisingly unique as its name.

IV.       Observations:

Through interviewing and observing we have learned about some problems that the locals are facing now:

1.  Villagers still use traditional method in their businesses so they could not produce much products
2.  The standard and hygienic of the products are still low
3.  The size of the businesses is still small and run by individual family
4.  The popularity of the business is not well known enough to the public
5.  The chance of trading and living condition is still having a big gap to develop
6.  The revenue from their businesses is still cannot support their family at all if they only count on their small-scale productions
7.  The environmental issues such as water and air pollution caused by dusty and smoky surrounding

Regarding these problems, our members came up with some solutions such as:

• Expand their businesses more widely
• They all should set a suitable price by themselves, not by other buyers
• Create advertisements platform to the public
• Giving opportunity to local people to know and learn about using new method/technology on productions.
• Promoting the advantages of environmental protection 

In addition to this field visiting, we have indeed learned and explored a lot about the local businesses, the processes of each production, the local living standard/lifestyle, and also the environment in the rural area. Moreover, we hope that we could help them spread the awareness of their businesses and problems more widely. A part from learning and exploring, members also got to build a close relationship with each other through fun and challenging activities and it was truly a memorable day for all of us.

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