Amarak Farm: Break Curiosity in Green Environment

Amarak Farm Field Study

On 26th of May, 2019, International Business Club had a field study to Amarak Farm which located in Koh Krobey Village, Sangkat Prekthey, Chbar Ampeou district, Phnom Penh. This field study was prepared by Club Activity Department leaded by Ms. Ma Kimphea and 35 participants including Organizers, IBC members, and CamEd Students. Amarak Farm with a café and luxury homestay accommodation on the left bank of the Bassac River on the outskirts of southern Phnom Penh which has been operating since 2008 and specializes in leaf vegetables especially rocket (also known as arugula) and several varieties of lettuce as well as herbs, tomatoes, beans, and fruits.

Vision: The Amarak Farm aims to provide an enriching and fulfilling experiences for visitor about the beauty of nature with fresh air, friendly environment, for family and friends gathering.

Mission: In order to meet with Vision, Amarak Farm builds and provides services to customer such as:

• Farm

The Amarak Farm grows chemical-free vegetables and fruits for the local market. With the support of local communities and markets, the farm has developed modern hygienic packaging to supply Aeon and Lucky supermarkets as well as the Makro wholesale market in Phnom Penh and various hotels and restaurants. With the increase of production in 2018, the farm has export markets in sight including Singapore and Thailand.

• Café

The café offers freshly-ground coffee and high-quality teas. It also offers a wide selection of beers, cocktails, and wines. Bottled wines and spirits are also available at reasonable prices.

• Accommodation

Amarak Farm offers five types of accommodation such as Amarak superior, Amarak deluxe, Amarak studio, Amarak residence, and tents which provide for Outdoor sitting areas and tables for two overlooking a 12-meter lap pool. Coffee and tea-making are included. It’s really different from Amarak residence that designed for self-catering parties, comprises all five rooms plus a state-of-the-art kitchen and dedicated food preparation area opening onto an indoor dining area on the ground floor by the 12-meter lap pool. Additionally, it also offers modern tents on raised wooden platforms with fans. These tents can accommodate up to four people on traditional Khmer mattresses and guests have the option of setting up their own or rental tents too.

Only 30 minutes from the center of Phnom Penh, we have arrived Amarak Farm. A resort and farm surrounded by green and fresh atmosphere. We got to tour around the resort and farm while being introduced to various types of organic grown vegetables and fruits. Guided by the representative of the farm, we got to know the processes and structure of the business.

• Fruitful Steps

Operating step by step with only 20 staffs, Amarak started of as an empty land in 2005 and later in 2008 they started building the farm and after a few years of farming they started to build resort including K'chos, Coffee shop and Homestay respectively.

As for the farm, they plant various type of vegetables and fruits according to seasons. However, there are some specific vegetable and fruits that are currently very demanded. For example, Rocket or Arugula, a type of salad that takes 6 to 7 months of planting and 1 week to 2 months of soil-drying before planting depend on the quality of soil. Beside from that, they have Seedless Guava, a type fruit that growing in a plastic bag to avoid from insects stings. This type of guava are mostly fruitful between April and July. For the seed or breed, they are imported from abroad and farmer will graft the branch by themselves. He also explained how they grow vegetable like cultivate seeds same as vegetables on the ground, then place them on the tissue for four nights and put on cans. Especially, to plant this vegetable they have to put water breeding into clean water (Clean water 100L you have to put water breeding 4L into the clean water). If we think about the day which they start to plant vegetables on the water until the day they harvest this vegetable, it takes 40 days. For vegetable, they also plant Tomato and others according to season and demand. Nevertheless, they also plant Wrong-season mango, which is fruitfully throughout the year. 

For the income, they gain it from all services and products they provide, however, they gain it mostly from vegetables because they have high demand from markets including Aeon, Lucky, Makro, and customers who come and buy directly at the farm and partner from Kampong Cham and Mondulkiri. Moreover, the demand is getting better and better as they used to sell 50kg-60kg per day now they sell about 100kg per day. Asking about expanding their market, we were told that they are now exporting their products sample to Singapore for testing. 

Focusing on quality of services and products, the farm and resort currently does not want to advertise and promote too much about the place as they have limited space and resources also they want to keep a silent and peaceful environment for their customers. They prefer having small groups of people everyday rather than crowding their resort and farm.The representative also told us that most of their customers knows their resort through social media and words-of-mouth. However, they will soon expand the resort so that they could attract more customers everyday and especially on holidays. 

In addition, they normally welcome customer at 11 o’clock onward. For prices range, if we talk about the price of homestay, it costs $40 per day for two peoples (Included breakfast and pool), and if you want to take all the rooms of this homestay, it costs $250 per day. There is also a meeting room which costs $80 per day. While Kchos costs 5000R for each person but they do not charge any fees for visiting. For vegetable, Rocket costs $5 per Kg for Khmer people, and it costs $7 per Kg for the foreigner.

Our field study to Amarak farm brought us back with unforgettable memories as well as an opportunity to learn of what the reality in business structure and strategies is and it provides future benefits for business ideas. It was so inspiring that Amarak farm used to be a small farm created from love and passion of the owner who loves agriculture and support organic products. Then, he expanded his farm into a real business in the marketplace. Currently, it becomes one of the well-known organic farms with nice view kind of mini resort, coffee shop, and accommodation for the public to visit, students to have a field study, and able to distribute his organic vegetable and fruits to various supermarkets in Phnom Penh. In the farm, there are some highlight things such as fishing, camping, boating, and places for a picnic with a relaxing green environment. After the field study with Amarak farm, there is a very important life lesson that owner shared us a phrase that stated: “there is nothing impossible if you put 100% effort and willingness to do the thing you believe in and have passion in doing so”.

Lastly, the International Business Club would like to thanks to Cam-Ed Business School and all the participants for always supporting us. Without participants, this Field Study couldn’t have happened.